Skip to main content
Research group

Micromechanics and Nanostructures

Our research is focused on studying the deformation behavior of materials at small length scales. Specifically, we use in-situ micromechanical testing inside a scanning electron microscope (SEM) to study the mechanical deformation behavior of materials across widely varying conditions: from cryogenic to high temperatures  (-150°C to 1000°C), quasistatic to high strain rates (10-5 to 104 s-1), impact, scratch, fracture and fatigue. Apart from standard nanoindentation, we use different focused ion beam (FIB) milled test geometries like micropillars for compression and microcantilevers for bending and fracture tests. These microspecimen geometries circumvent the difficulties associated with analyzing indentation data that comprises of complex stress and strain distribution below the indenter tip and allows miniaturizing more "conventional" mechanical test goemetries. The combined use of nanoindentation and SEM allows us to “visualize” the deformation characteristics (e.g. slip, twin, cracks, etc.) in true in-situ fashion during the micromechanical tests. The overarching aim of our research is to gain fundamental insights into the deformation mechanisms, which typically operate at small length scales, and to use this information to aid in our materials design efforts. Our research group explores temperature and strain rate effects in materials ranging from metals, alloys, semiconductors, ceramics, polymers and composites to thin films and coatings.