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Measuring surface dislocation nucleation in defect-scarce nanostructures

Nature Materials volume 14, pages 707–713 (2015)Cite this article

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Abstract

Linear defects in crystalline materials, known as dislocations, are central to the understanding of plastic deformation and mechanical strength, as well as control of performance in a variety of electronic and photonic materials. Despite nearly a century of research on dislocation structure and interactions, measurements of the energetics and kinetics of dislocation nucleation have not been possible, as synthesizing and testing pristine crystals absent of defects has been prohibitively challenging. Here, we report experiments that directly measure the surface dislocation nucleation strengths in high-quality 〈110〉 Pd nanowhiskers subjected to uniaxial tension. We find that, whereas nucleation strengths are weakly size- and strain-rate-dependent, a strong temperature dependence is uncovered, corroborating predictions that nucleation is assisted by thermal fluctuations. We measure atomic-scale activation volumes, which explain both the ultrahigh athermal strength as well as the temperature-dependent scatter, evident in our experiments and well captured by a thermal activation model.

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Figure 1: Experimental method and verification of elasticity.
Figure 2: In situ TEM tensile testing shows dislocation nucleation and failure occurring in short succession.
Figure 3: Representative stress–strain behaviour shows strong temperature dependence of the nucleation strength and a similar deformation morphology irrespective of testing conditions.
Figure 4: Weak size dependence of nucleation strength.
Figure 5: Strain rate and temperature dependence, and statistical analysis of benchmark experiments.
Figure 6: Comparison between the experimental temperature-dependent nucleation strength distribution and the analytical model for the probability distribution.

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by the National Science Foundation through a CAREER Award #DMR-1056293. We thank S. Terrab (University of Colorado Boulder) for technical expertise and project support. We are also grateful to V. Vitek for critical reading of our manuscript and insightful comments. The authors also thank the support of the staff and facilities at the Penn Nanoscale Characterization Facility at the University of Pennsylvania. This work was performed, in part, at the Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies, a US Department of Energy, Office of Basic Energy Sciences user facility. Sandia National Laboratories is a multi-programme laboratory managed and operated by Sandia Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Lockheed Martin Corporation, for the US Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration under contract DE-AC04-94AL85000.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104, USA

    Lisa Y. Chen, Mo-rigen He, Jungho Shin & Daniel S. Gianola

  2. Max-Planck-Institut für Intelligente Systeme, D-70589 Stuttgart, Germany

    Gunther Richter

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  1. Lisa Y. Chen
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Contributions

L.Y.C. and D.S.G. designed the experiments. L.Y.C. implemented the low-temperature testing set-up. L.Y.C., M-r.H. and J.S. conducted mechanical experiments and material characterization. G.R. synthesized the materials and conducted material characterization. L.Y.C. and D.S.G. developed the analytical model and performed analysis of the data. D.S.G. supervised the work. L.Y.C. and D.S.G. wrote the initial manuscript with input from all authors. All authors contributed to discussion of the results, provided input on the manuscript, and approved the final version.

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Correspondence to Daniel S. Gianola.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Chen, L., He, Mr., Shin, J. et al. Measuring surface dislocation nucleation in defect-scarce nanostructures. Nature Mater 14, 707–713 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat4288

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