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Deconfinement leads to changes in the nanoscale plasticity of silicon

Nature Nanotechnology volume 6, pages 480–484 (2011)Cite this article

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Abstract

Silicon crystals have an important role in the electronics industry, and silicon nanoparticles have applications in areas such as nanoelectromechanical systems, photonics and biotechnology1,2. However, the elastic–plastic transition observed in silicon is not fully understood; in particular, it is not known if the plasticity of silicon is determined by dislocations or by transformations between phases. Here, based on compression experiments and molecular dynamics simulations, we show that the mechanical properties of bulk silicon3,4,5,6 and silicon nanoparticles are significantly different. We find that bulk silicon exists in a state of relative constraint, with its plasticity dominated by phase transformations, whereas silicon nanoparticles are less constrained and display dislocation-driven plasticity. This transition, which we call deconfinement, can also explain the absence of phase transformations in deformed silicon nanowedges7,8. Furthermore, the phenomenon is in agreement with effects observed in shape-memory alloy nanopillars9, and provides insight into the origin of incipient plasticity10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19.

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Figure 1: Mechanical response of nanodeformed silicon from bulk to nanoparticles.
Figure 2: Mechanical response of a compressed silicon nanoparticle.
Figure 3: MD-simulated contrasting behaviour of confined (bulk) and deconfined (nanoparticle) silicon.
Figure 4: Effect of deconfinement of silicon from bulk to nanosphere viewed in terms of stress analysis.
Figure 5: Schematic of silicon deconfinement process scaled with the pressure of the Si-II → Si-XII/III + α-Si phase transition.

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Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge the CSC–IT Center for Science for computation resources and the Ceramic Society of Japan for invaluable assistance. R.N., D.C. and N.T. thank the Academy of Finland for partial support under the FINNANO programme and NANOSPIKE research project. A.B. and W.W.G. acknowledge the support of the National Science Foundation (NSF; CTS-0506748 and CMMI-00800896). R.N. acknowledges the involvement of the Research Foundation of Helsinki University of Technology, as well as the NANOINDENT EU-research grant. D.C. and R.N. thank R. Nieminen and K. Niihara for valuable discussions. The authors also thank A. Poludniak for careful reading of the manuscript and stimulating comments.

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Author notes

  1. Dariusz Chrobak and Roman Nowak: These authors contributed equally to this work

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Nordic Hysitron Laboratory, School of Chemical Technology, Aalto University, Vuorimiehentie 2A, Espoo, 00076, Aalto, Finland

    Dariusz Chrobak, Natalia Tymiak & Roman Nowak

  2. Institute of Materials Science, University of Silesia, Bankowa 12, Katowice, 40-007, Poland

    Dariusz Chrobak

  3. Department of Chemical Engineering & Materials Science, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, 55455, Minnesota, USA

    Aaron Beaber, Ozan Ugurlu & William W. Gerberich

  4. Extreme Energy-Density Research Institute, Nagaoka University of Technology, Nagaoka, 940-2188, Niigata, Japan

    Roman Nowak

Authors
  1. Dariusz Chrobak
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Contributions

D.C. carried out the calculations and analysed the compatibility of the theoretical and experimental data. R.N. conceived the concept of deconfinement-driven transition and designed the research project. N.T. analysed the data. W.W.G. designed and supervised the experimental part, and A.B. and O.U. performed nanocompression tests and analysed the output. R.N. and D.C. wrote the paper. All authors discussed the results.

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Correspondence to Roman Nowak.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Chrobak, D., Tymiak, N., Beaber, A. et al. Deconfinement leads to changes in the nanoscale plasticity of silicon. Nature Nanotech 6, 480–484 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/nnano.2011.118

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