Ex situ and in situ deformation of silicon nano-spheres was used to investigate the mechanisms responsible for hardening, which consequently affects strength. With spheres in the 40 to 400nm range, an inverse strength dependence was found. Applicability of linear, forest and/or exhaustion hardening were explored with the hypothesis that all three were of the same class limited by dislocation nucleation.

Small Size Strength Dependence on Dislocation Nucleation. J.D.Nowak, A.R.Beaber, O.Ugurlu, S.L.Girshick, W.W.Gerberich: Scripta Materialia, 2010, 62[11], 819-22