Deformation Twinning of a Silver Nanocrystal under High Pressure.

Within a high-pressure environment, crystal deformation is controlled by complex processes such as dislocation motion, twinning, and phase transitions, which change materials' microscopic morphology and alter their properties. Understanding a crystal's response to external stress provides a unique opportunity for rational tailoring of its functionalities. It is very challenging to track the strain evolution and physical deformation from a single nanoscale crystal under high-pressure stress. Here, we report an in situ three-dimensional mapping of morphology and strain evolutions in a single-crystal silver nanocube within a high-pressure environment using the Bragg Coherent Diffractive Imaging (CDI) method. We observed a continuous lattice distortion, followed by a deformation twining process at a constant pressure. The ability to visualize stress-introduced deformation of nanocrystals with high spatial resolution and prominent strain sensitivity provides an important route for interpreting and engineering novel properties of nanomaterials.