ATOMISTIC EXPERIMENTAL AND SIMULATION STUDIES OF THE INCIPIENT PLASTIC DEFORMATION MECHANISMS AROUND NANOINDENTATIONS IN Au(001)

The nature and configuration of the dislocations generated during the incipient stages of plasticity in nanoindentations are still to a large extent unclear. In previous studies we have recognised and characterised by STM a number of novel surface defects in the surface of fcc metals generated by nanoindentation. We have analysed [1] the generation and kinetics of two types of dislocation configurations in Au(001): (i) mesas resulting from the splitting of perfect loops with Burgers vector b parallel to the surface and (ii) ‘screw-loops’, short name for halfloops with two segments in a screw orientation, their vector b being along a 110 direction