Morphological characteristics and atomic evolution behavior of nanojoints in Ag nanowire interconnect network

Ag nanowires(AgNWs)have shown great application value in the field of flexible electronics due to their excellent optical and electrical properties,and the quality of its joints of AgNWs in the thin film network directly plays a key role in its performance.In order to further improve the joint quality of AgNWs under thermal excitation,the thermal welding process and atomic evolution behavior of AgNWs were investigated through a combination of in situ experimental and molecular dynamics simulations.The influence of processing time,temperature,and stress distribution due to spatial arrangement on nanojoints was systematically explored.What is more,the failure mechanisms and their atomic interface behavior of the nanojoints were also investigated.

2D-to-3D buckling transformability enabled reconfigurable metamaterials for tunable chirality and focusing effect

Recently,multifarious deformation approaches in nature have promoted dynamic manipulation for electromagnetic(EM)waves in metamaterials,and those representative strategies are mainly focused on the modulation of spectral parameters.Several works have also achieved tunable phase-gradient meta-devices.Here,to broaden the modulation freedom of mechanical deformation,we initially propose two reconfigurable metamaterials consisting of mirrored S-shaped meta-atoms selectively bonded on biaxially pre-stretched substrates.Planar meta-atoms with spin-insensitive transmittance are buckled into 3D morphologies to break residual symmetries by releasing the stress and to facilitate spin-dependent transmittance under circularly polarized incidence.Owing to the geometric anisotropy of S-shaped meta-atoms along the x and y axes,3D chiral meta-atoms exhibit discriminate circularly cross-polarized transmittance under opposite spins.The underlying physical mechanism reveals that EM resonance originates from the excitation of electric dipoles and magnetic dipoles,and their cross coupling finally triggers the chiral effects of 3D meta-atoms.By introducing the gradient-phase design that keeps unchanged under various strains,two types of meta-atoms with specified orientations are interleaved to design a double-foci metalens,and its 2D-to-3D morphology transformation shortens the focusing length and facilitates the intensity change of two foci.Our approach in designing reconfigurable EM metamaterials with 2D-to-3D buckling transformability can be further extended toward terahertz even optical wavebands,and it may assist with deriving more applicable multi-functionalities in the aspects of imaging,sensing,and holograms.

Enhanced tensile ductility of tungsten microwires via high-density dislocations and reduced grain boundaries

Despite being strong with many outstanding physical properties,tungsten is inherently brittle at room temperature,restricting its structural and functional applications at small scales.Here,a facile strategy has been adopted,to introduce high-density dislocations while reducing grain boundaries,through electron backscatter diffraction(EBSD)-guided microfabrication of cold-drawn bulk tungsten wires.The designed tungsten microwire attains an ultralarge uniform tensile elongation of~10.6%,while retains a high yield strength of~2.4 GPa.in situ TEM tensile testing reveals that the large uniform elongation of tungsten microwires originates from the motion of pre-existing high-density dislocations,while the subsequent ductile fracture is attributed to crack-tip plasticity and the inhibition of grain boundary cracking.This work demonstrates the application potential of tungsten microcomponents with superior ductility and workability for micro/nanoscale mechanical,electronic,and energy systems.