Fig. 4: Size effect on yield strength and flow stress of atomistically simulated npg.

a True stress and (c) normalized dislocation density (normalized by mean ligament size) as function of strain of ExIn samples with different ligament sizes. b Normalized yield strength (normalized by the stress at first plastic event of samples with L = 30 nm) as function of ligament size in ExIn and GeCo samples and [137]-oriented gold nanowires (NW) under compression. d Schematic of geometrically necessary dislocations (GNDs) in ligaments for different characteristic lengths with the same strain gradient.