Plastic deformation of gallium arsenide micropillars under uniaxial compression at room temperature

The authors have experimentally investigated the compressive strength of GaAs pillars with a diameter of 1 mu m by uniaxial compression tests. The tests were performed at room temperature and, contrary to macroscopic tests, the micropillars were found to exhibit ductile plasticity comparable to that of metal single crystal micropillars. The yield stress was 1.8 +/- 0.4 GPa and, for one pillar that was more closely examined, a total deformation of 24% was observed. In the diffraction patterns from transmission electron microscopy studies of this pillar, a high density of twins was observed. (c) 2007 American Institute of Physics.