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Review on size effects and their interpretation 1.

Size effects due to limitations by the internal length scale The most prominent size effect caused by internal obstacles to dislocation motion is the so-called Hall Petch effect [2-4]. Here the limiting length scale is gi en by the grain size! " # "o $ %d &'.() *here " is the actual strength) "o is the friction stress for infinite grain size) % is a constant) and d the grain size. "o and % depend on the condition of the considered crystal [4) (]. +uring deformation) the glide of dislocations is stopped at grain boundaries) *hich are considered as impenetrable obstacles. This leads to a pile-up of dislocations) creating a bac%-stress on the acting dislocation source. Therefore) the e,ternal stress re-uired for further deformation increases. .or a certain increment in global strain) e-ual numbers of dislocations ha e to be stored in indi idual grains. /ut for smaller grain size) the spacing bet*een indi idual dislocations in the created pile-up gets reduced) thus e,erting a stronger bac%-stress on the acting source [0]. Therefore) the measured flo* stress increases *ith decreasing grain size. 1imilar size effects *ere obser ed for particles and other obstacles hindering dislocation motion. 2n this case the a erage obstacle spacing limits the stress necessary to bo* out the mo ing dislocation to bypass the hard obstacle in terms of an 3ro*an mechanism [4]. 5 comparati e re ie* on these size effects *as gi en by 5rzt [6]. 2. Size effects as a consequence of non-uniform deformation 2n the last t*enty years se eral e,perimental obser ations presented pronounced size effects in the presence of strain gradients caused by non-uniform deformation. .lec% et al. [7] obser ed increased torsional resistance of thin *ires) *hile no effect on the tensile properties *as obser ed. 1t8l%en and 9 ans [:'] reported increased bending strengths *ith reduced foil thic%ness) and se eral authors obser ed increased nanohardness *ith reduced indentation depth [::-:;]. <on-uniform deformation re-uires the storage of geometrically necessary dislocations =><+s? in the crystal) *hich causes a local gradient in strain. This strain gradient directly correlates to the density of ><+s @> [:4]! *here b is the /urgers ector) and A is the shear in the slip system. This -uantity enters the classical Taylor relation! *here B is the flo* stress) C a numerical constant in the order of '.() > the shear modulus) and @1 the density of statistically stored dislocations. /ased on this idea) se eral formulations of this strain gradient theory *ere de eloped to describe the influence of strain gradients to the e,perimentally obser ed size effects under non-homogenous loading [7) :;) :() :0]. >enerally) the influence of a strain gradient D present in the deformation field on the flo* stress " can be e,pressed by the follo*ing e-uation [:;] *here "' is the flo* stress in the absence of a gradient and l' is a characteristic material length scale. 3. Size effects due to geometrical limitations of the e ternal length scale The characterization of mechanical properties in small dimensions is a maEor topic *hen considering the ongoing trend in miniaturization and the need for proper material characteristics for engineering applications in this regime. <anoindentation is the techni-ue commonly applied for this %ind of problems) as it offers sufficiently high resolution in determining load and displacement and *or%s almost non-destructi e. <e ertheless) it suffers from the built-up of a strain gradient inherent to the method. Fecently) a no el method *as de eloped *here miniaturized compression samples are machined using focused ion beam =.2/? milling and loaded in a nanoindenter system e-uipped *ith a flat

diamond punch [:4]. This method remo es most of the constraints present in other techni-ues and is able to probe mechanical properties on the micrometer and sub-micrometer scale under nominally unia,ial loading and therefore in the absence of strain gradients. Therefore) it *as -uite une,pected that these micro-compression specimens e,hibited a strong geometrical size effect in terms of an increased flo* stress *ith reduced sample dimensions. This obser ation has dra*n considerable interest in the scientific community) and se eral groups de eloped similar methods and reported comparable results [:4-24]. Fecently) se eral models *ere formulated to e,plain the obser ed size effect. 3ne assumption made to predict the high obser ed flo* stresses compared to bul% single crystals is a lac% in dislocation multiplication e ents during deformation) resulting in a dislocation free test structure and correspondingly a high flo* stress necessary for dislocation nucleation. The theory go erning this aspect is termed dislocation star ation theory [2(]. 3n the other hand) cutting of pre-e,isting dislocations during .2/ machining can reduce the a erage dislocation length present in the microcompression specimen compared to the bul% crystal it *as fabricated from and introduce singleended dislocation sources. The distribution of this arm lengths gi es rise to truncation hardening [20]. .urthermore) due to the limited number of dislocations in these small structures) a statistical aspect enters the scene along *ith the -uestion of correlation lengths in these miniaturized specimen [20-26]. Guite some effort *as put on modeling this %ind of e,periments *ith arious methods) on the one hand to e,amine the influence of misalignment and specimen geometry on the determined data [27;:]) on the other hand to identify the mechanisms go erning deformation in miniaturized compression samples [24) ;2-;(]. 5t the moment) no clear mechanism e,plaining the compression size effect is identified. Hhile on the one hand in-situ compression tests in a transmission electron microscope =T9I? sho* no dislocation storage for specimen *ith diameters belo* ;'' nm) in-situ *hite beam Jaue diffraction during micro-compression [;0] as *ell as post compression in estigation using electron bac%scatter diffraction =9/1+? [;4] present distinct crystal rotations due to the storage of dislocations for samples ranging from 2 Km to 6 Km in diameter. .urther -uestions rise by the fabrication method itself) as the ion damage during machining might influence the determined material properties [;6]. /ei et al. [;7] performed micro-compression e,periments on *his%er-li%e structures and reported size-independent flo* stresses in the order of the theoretical shear stress) *hich *as not obser ed for .2/ fabricated specimen. .urthermore) they found changes of the indentation beha ior due to .2/ milling [4'].

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