The stress-strain response of Cu single-crystal compression micropillar containing an initial dislocation network was investigated by three-dimensional discrete dislocation dynamics simulations. The results demonstrated that the stress-strain curves could be divided into three distinct types with increasing the sizes of micropillars: the three-stage exhaustion hardening, the multi-stage mixed hardening and the two-stage conventional forest hardening. The characteristic sizes of the micropillars was determined for the second type of the curves to be 500–700nm.

Characteristic Sizes for Exhaustion-Hardening Mechanism of Compressed Cu Single-Crystal Micropillars. Y.Gao, Z.Zhuang, Z.L.Liu, X.C.Zhao, Z.H.Zhang: Chinese Physics Letters, 2010, 27[8], 086103