Nature Communications (Sep 2021)
Atomistic processes of surface-diffusion-induced abnormal softening in nanoscale metallic crystals
Abstract
As the sample size goes down to the nanoscale, the surface-related mechanism plays an important role in the deformation of nanoscale crystals. Here, the authors report breakdown of the traditional Hall-Petch-like relation in nanoscale Ag attributed to diffusion-involved nucleation behaviors.