Constitutive Law and Flow Mechanism in Diamond Deformation

• Published in: Scientific reports Vol. 2; no. 1; p. 876
• Main Authors: Yu, Xiaohui, Raterron, Paul, Zhang, Jianzhong, Lin, Zhijun, Wang, Liping, Zhao, Yusheng
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 19.11.2012; Nature Publishing Group
• Subjects: 639/166/988; 639/301; 639/766/25; 704/2151/330; Alloys; applied physics; Crystals; Deformation; Dislocation; High pressure; High temperature; Humanities and Social Sciences; materials science; mechanical engineering; Mechanics; Mechanics of materials; mineralogy; multidisciplinary; Physics; Plasticity; Science; Temperature; Temperature effects; Yield stress
• ISSN: 2045-2322; 2045-2322
• DOI: 10.1038/srep00876

Constitutive laws and crystal plasticity in diamond deformation have been the subjects of substantial interest since synthetic diamond was made in 1950's. To date, however, little is known quantitatively regarding its brittle-ductile properties and yield strength at high temperatures. Here we report, for the first time, the strain-stress constitutive relations and experimental demonstration of deformation mechanisms under confined high pressure. The deformation at room temperature is essentially brittle, cataclastic and mostly accommodated by fracturing on {111} plane with no plastic yielding at uniaxial strains up to 15%. At elevated temperatures of 1000°C and 1200°C diamond crystals exhibit significant ductile flow with corresponding yield strength of 7.9 and 6.3 GPa, indicating that diamond starts to weaken when temperature is over 1000°C. At high temperature the plastic deformation and ductile flow is meditated by the {111} dislocation glide and a very active {111} micro-twinning.