Probing Microplastic Deformation in Metallic Materials

Metallic materials deform through discrete displacement bursts that are commonly associated with abrupt dislocation activities, i.e. avalanches, during plastic flow. Dislocations might be active prior to the textbook yielding, but it is unclear whether these activities can be discerned as smaller strain events, i.e. microplasticity. Novel experimental approaches involving nanomechanical experiments are developed to detect and to quantify microplastic deformation that occurs during compression of micron- and sub-micron sized single crystalline copper nano-pillars. The experiment, focusing on metals’ pre-yield regime, reveals an evolving dissipation component in the storage and loss moduli that likely corresponds to a smooth transition from perfect elasticity to avalanche-dominated plastic deformation. This experimental investigation is corroborated by mesoscopic plasticity simulations, which apply to a minimal model that combines fast avalanche dynamics and slow relaxation processes of dislocations. The model's predictions are consistent with the microscopic experiments and provide constitutive relationship predicting microplastic crackling noise being upconverted by small stress perturbations. Another experimental investigation on unload-reload cyclic behavior of copper nano-pillars post yielding shows a decaying microplastic hysteresis with emergent power laws and scaling features, which signifies an ever-explored reversible-to- irreversible transitions in metal deformation, as seen in other nonequilibrium systems. To study microplasticity in macroscopic metallic samples, an instrument is custom-built based on Michelson interferometer and achieves unprecedented high displacement noise resolution of 10−14m/√Hz in the frequency range of 10 – 1000 Hz. The macroscopic experiment has resolved a driving-modulated microplastic noise in bulk cantilever steel samples under nominal elastic loading. The characteristics of the noise resemble those of the microplastic noise predicted from the micromechanical simulations developed from microscopic experiments

Probing microplasticity in small scale FCC crystals via Dynamic Mechanical Analysis

In small-scale metallic systems, collective dislocation activity has been correlated with size effects in strength and with a step-like plastic response under uniaxial compression and tension. Yielding and plastic flow in these samples is often accompanied by the emergence of multiple dislocation avalanches. Dislocations might be active pre-yield, but their activity typically cannot be discerned because of the inherent instrumental noise in detecting equipment. We apply Alternate Current (AC) load perturbations via Dynamic Mechanical Analysis (DMA) during quasi-static uniaxial compression experiments on single crystalline Cu nano-pillars with diameters of 500 nm, and compute dynamic moduli at frequencies 0.1, 0.3, 1, and 10 Hz under progressively higher static loads until yielding. By tracking the collective aspects of the oscillatory stress-strain-time series in multiple samples, we observe an evolving dissipative component of the dislocation network response that signifies the transition from elastic behavior to dislocation avalanches in the globally pre-yield regime. We postulate that microplasticity, which is associated with the combination of dislocation avalanches and slow viscoplastic relaxations, is the cause of the dependency of dynamic modulus on the driving rate and the quasi-static stress. We construct a continuum mesoscopic dislocation dynamics model to compute the frequency response of stress over strain and obtain a consistent agreement with experimental observations. The results of our experiments and simulations present a pathway to discern and quantify correlated dislocation activity in the pre-yield regime of deforming crystals.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure

Exceptional resilience of small-scale Au_(30)Cu_(25)Zn_(45) under cyclic stress-induced phase transformation

Shape memory alloys that produce and recover from large deformation driven by martensitic transformation are widely exploited in biomedical devices and micro-actuators. Generally their actuation work degrades significantly within first a few cycles, and is reduced at smaller dimensions. Further, alloys exhibiting unprecedented reversibility have relatively small superelastic strain, 0.7%. These raise the questions of whether high reversibility is necessarily accompanied by small work and strain, and whether high work and strain is necessarily diminished at small scale. Here we conclusively demonstrate that these are not true by showing that Au_(30)Cu_(25)Zn_(45) pillars exhibit 12 MJ m^(−3) work and 3.5% superelastic strain even after 100,000 phase transformation cycles. Our findings confirm that the lattice compatibility dominates themechanical behavior of phase-changing materials at nano to micron scales, and points a way for smart micro-actuators design having the mutual benefits of high actuation work and long lifetime

Measurement of mechanical losses in the carbon nanotube black coating of silicon wafers

The successful detection of gravitational waves from astrophysical sources carried out by the laser interferometric detectors LIGO and Virgo have stimulated scientists to develop a new generation of more sensitive gravitational wave detectors. In the proposed upgrade called LIGO Voyager, silicon test masses will be cooled to cryogenic temperatures. To provide heat removal from the test masses when they absorb the laser light one can increase their thermal emissivity using a special black coating. We have studied mechanical losses in a carbon nanotube black coating deposited on silicon wafers. The additional thermal noise associated with mechanical loss in this coating was calculated using a value of the product of the coating Young's modulus and the coating mechanical loss angle determined from the measurements. It was found that at temperatures of about 123 K, the additional thermal noise of the LIGO Voyager test mass caused by the carbon nanotube black coating deposited on its barrel is less than the noise associated with the Acktar Black coating and is 20 times less than the noise due to the optical high reflective (HR) coating of the test mass

Yield precursor dislocation avalanches in small crystals: the irreversibility transition

The transition from elastic to plastic deformation in crystalline metals shares history dependence and scale-invariant avalanche signature with other non-equilibrium systems under external loading: dilute colloidal suspensions, plastically-deformed amorphous solids, granular materials, and dislocation-based simulations of crystals. These other systems exhibit transitions with clear analogies to work hardening and yield stress, with many typically undergoing purely elastic behavior only after 'training' through repeated cyclic loading; studies in these other systems show a power law scaling of the hysteresis loop extent and of the training time as the peak load approaches a so-called reversible-irreversible transition (RIT). We discover here that deformation of small crystals shares these key characteristics: yielding and hysteresis in uniaxial compression experiments of single-crystalline Cu nano- and micro-pillars decay under repeated cyclic loading. The amplitude and decay time of the yield precursor avalanches diverge as the peak stress approaches failure stress for each pillar, with a power law scaling virtually equivalent to RITs in other nonequilibrium systems.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure

Exceptional resilience of small-scale Au_(30)Cu_(25)Zn_(45) under cyclic stress-induced phase transformation

Shape memory alloys that produce and recover from large deformation driven by martensitic transformation are widely exploited in biomedical devices and micro-actuators. Generally their actuation work degrades significantly within first a few cycles, and is reduced at smaller dimensions. Further, alloys exhibiting unprecedented reversibility have relatively small superelastic strain, 0.7%. These raise the questions of whether high reversibility is necessarily accompanied by small work and strain, and whether high work and strain is necessarily diminished at small scale. Here we conclusively demonstrate that these are not true by showing that Au_(30)Cu_(25)Zn_(45) pillars exhibit 12 MJ m^(−3) work and 3.5% superelastic strain even after 100,000 phase transformation cycles. Our findings confirm that the lattice compatibility dominates themechanical behavior of phase-changing materials at nano to micron scales, and points a way for smart micro-actuators design having the mutual benefits of high actuation work and long lifetime

Challenges of EGFR-TKIs in NSCLC and the potential role of herbs and active compounds: From mechanism to clinical practice

Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutations are the most common oncogenic driver in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Epidermal growth factor receptor-tyrosine kinase inhibitors (EGFR-TKIs) are widely used in the treatment of lung cancer, especially in the first-line treatment of advanced NSCLC, and EGFR-TKIs monotherapy has achieved better efficacy and tolerability compared with standard chemotherapy. However, acquired resistance to EGFR-TKIs and associated adverse events pose a significant obstacle to targeted lung cancer therapy. Therefore, there is an urgent need to seek effective interventions to overcome these limitations. Natural medicines have shown potential therapeutic advantages in reversing acquired resistance to EGFR-TKIs and reducing adverse events, bringing new options and directions for EGFR-TKIs combination therapy. In this paper, we systematically demonstrated the resistance mechanism of EGFR-TKIs, the clinical strategy of each generation of EGFR-TKIs in the synergistic treatment of NSCLC, the treatment-related adverse events of EGFR-TKIs, and the potential role of traditional Chinese medicine in overcoming the resistance and adverse reactions of EGFR-TKIs. Herbs and active compounds have the potential to act synergistically through multiple pathways and multiple mechanisms of overall regulation, combined with targeted therapy, and are expected to be an innovative model for NSCLC treatment

Yield precursor dislocation avalanches in small crystals: the irreversibility transition

The transition from elastic to plastic deformation in crystalline metals shares history dependence and scale-invariant avalanche signature with other nonequilibrium systems under external loading such as colloidal suspensions. These other systems exhibit transitions with clear analogies to work hardening and yield stress, with many typically undergoing purely elastic behavior only after “training” through repeated cyclic loading; studies in these other systems show a power-law scaling of the hysteresis loop extent and of the training time as the peak load approaches a so-called reversible-to-irreversible transition (RIT). We discover here that deformation of small crystals shares these key characteristics: yielding and hysteresis in uniaxial compression experiments of single-crystalline Cu nano- and micropillars decay under repeated cyclic loading. The amplitude and decay time of the yield precursor avalanches diverge as the peak stress approaches failure stress for each pillar, with a power-law scaling virtually equivalent to RITs in other nonequilibrium systems