Heterogeneity in the Small-Scale Deformation Behavior of Disordered Nanoparticle Packings.

Lefever, Joel A; Jacobs, Tevis D B; Tam, Qizhan; Hor, Jyo Lyn; Huang, Yun-Ru; Lee, Daeyeon; Carpick, Robert W · Nano Lett · 2016

basic_science · Level V

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Abstract

Atomic force microscopy-based nanoindentation is used to image and probe the local mechanical properties of thin disordered nanoparticle packings. The probed region is limited to the size of a few particles, and an individual particle can be loaded and displaced to a fraction of a single particle radius. The results demonstrate heterogeneous mechanical response that is location-dependent. The weak locations may be analogous to the "soft spots" previously predicted in glasses and other disordered packings.