Microcompression tests were performed on focused-ion-beam-machined micropillars of several body-centered-cubic metals (W, Mo, Ta, and Nb) at room temperature. The relationship between yield strength and pillar diameter as well as the deformation morphologies were found to correlate with a parameter specific for bcc metals, i.e., the critical temperature Tc. This finding sheds new light on the phenomenon of small-scale plasticity in largely unexplored non-fcc metals.
Physical Review Letters , 2009, 103 (10), 105501.