Understanding size effects on the strength of single crystals through high-temperature micropillar compression

Compression tests of 〈1 1 1〉-oriented LiF single-crystal micropillars 1–5 μm in diameter were carried out from 25 °C to 250 °C. While the flow stress at ambient temperature was independent of the micropillar diameter, a strong size effect developed with elevated temperature. This behavior was explained by rigorously accounting for the different contributions to the flow stress of the micropillars as a function of temperature and pillar diameter: the lattice resistance, the forest hardening; and the size-dependent contribution as a result of the operation of single-arm dislocation sources. This was possible because the micropillars were obtained by chemically etching away the surrounding matrix in directionally solidified LiF–NaCl and LiF–KCl eutectics, avoiding any use of focused ion beam methods, yielding micropillars with a controlled dislocation density, independent of the sample preparation technique. In particular, the role of the lattice resistance on the size effect of micrometer-size single crystals was demonstrated unambiguously for the first time. This result rationalizes the different values of power-law exponent for the size effect found in the literature for face-centered cubic and body-centered cubic metals as well as for covalent and ionic solids.