The compressive, tensile, and shear deformation of nm-sized specimens was carried out at room temperature, within a 200kV transmission electron microscope, using a piezo-driven specimen holder. The atomic processes of deformation were observed  in situ  at a spatial resolution of 0.2nm and at a time resolution of less than 0.02s. It was shown that slip and twinning were caused by the deformation, and occurred in every atomic layer in dislocation-free nm-sized samples. A dislocation-like line defect was observed during slip and twinning.

Atomistic Visualization of Deformation in Gold T.Kizuka: Physical Review B, 1998, 57[18], 11158-63