Investigating Nanopillars: Silicon Brittle? Not This Kind!
Tuesday, October 13, 2009 - 13:28
in Physics & Chemistry
Silicon, the most important semiconductor material of all, is usually considered to be as brittle and breakable as window glass. On the nanometer scale, however, the substance exhibits very different properties, as Swiss researchers have shown by creating minute silicon pillars. If the diameters of the columns are made small enough, then under load they do not simply break off, as large pieces of silicon would, but they yield to the pressure and undergo plastic deformation, as a metal would. This discovery opens the way for completely new design techniques from a materials point of view for mechanical microsystems and in the watch industry.