Size effect on the mechanical behavior of single crystalline Fe-31.2Pd (at.%) micropillars

The size effect on the mechanical behaviors of single crystalline Fe-31.2Pd (at.%) micropillars with four different pillar diameters (approximately 2 μm, 1 μm, 500 nm and 400 nm) were studied by compressing in the [001] direction. Both the Young's modulus and yield stress increase with the decrease of pillar diameter. The main defects in the plastically deformed pillars are the {111} deformation twins, which could be covered by high density of dislocations after further plastic deformation in a 400 nm pillar. A repeatable elastic-like strain ~4% was observed for more than 40,000 cycles.