Effect of surfaces, internal and external, on the strength and ductility of metals

现代微电子和微机械设备包含微小的微米，通常是亚微米尺寸的金属部件。这些组件显示出显着增加的强度相比，其更大的散装金属同行。描述其独特性质的理论通常与描述经典大块金属部件强度的理论完全不同，尽管在两种情况下金属是相同的。在所有长度尺度上，金属的塑性变形都受到变形金属周围的外表面和内表面的强烈影响。本研究将探讨长度尺度相关的金属塑性变形的主题，通过考虑各种类型的内部和外部表面的变形过程中的相对影响。通过这种方式，将达到对塑性变形过程的统一理解，这将大大提高我们对现有和新的金属部件的机械强度和延展性的预测能力，无论其尺寸如何。

Modern microelectronic and micromechanical devices contain tiny micrometer, and often submicrometer, size metal components. These components display significantly increased strength compared to their larger bulk metal counterparts. Theories describing their unique properties are often quite different than those describing the strength of classical bulk metal components despite the fact that the metal is the same in both cases. The plastic deformation of metals, across all length scales, is strongly influenced by the condition of the external surface around, and internal surfaces within, the deforming metal. This proposed study will approach the subject of length-scale dependent plastic deformation of metals by considering the relative influence of a variety of types of internal and external surfaces on the deformation process. In this way a unified understanding of the plastic deformation process will be arrived at that will greatly improve our predictive capability of the mechanical strength and ductility of existing, and new, metal components regardless of their size.