Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain
the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in
Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles
and JavaScript.
Mechanical properties are physical properties that a material exhibits upon the application of forces. Examples of mechanical properties are the modulus of elasticity, tensile strength, elongation, hardness and fatigue limit.
In a multi-principal-element VCoNi alloy, premature necking during Lüders banding has been harnessed to produce rapid dislocation multiplication, leading to both forest hardening and hardening induced by regions of local chemical order. The result is ductility of 20% and a yield strength of 2 GPa, during room-temperature and cryogenic deformation.
The shape and trajectory of a crack plays a crucial role in material fracture. High-precision experiments now directly capture this phenomenon, unveiling the intricate 3D nature of cracks.
The four core effects of high-entropy alloys are discussed and greater insights are presented. These clarifications are helpful in understanding materials from low entropy (simple two-component or three-component alloys) to high entropy (five components or greater), and in general materials design.
Previous studies of the effects of strain on charge density waves have mostly focused on uniaxial strain. Here the authors use a biaxial-strain device to demonstrate switching of the charge density wave orientation, as well as a strong linear increase of the transition temperature while the gap seems to saturate.
Crystals are known to have a range of responses to light, but multiple responses in the same material are rare. Here, the authors report different mechanical effects in response to light across three polymorphs as a result of a dimerization reaction.
Topological solitons can be realised in a range of platforms that have the potential for processing topologically protected information. Here, the authors identify a class of vector solitons in a mechanical lattice, showing superposed kinks and invertible polarizations, with implications for nonlinear topological mechanics.
In a multi-principal-element VCoNi alloy, premature necking during Lüders banding has been harnessed to produce rapid dislocation multiplication, leading to both forest hardening and hardening induced by regions of local chemical order. The result is ductility of 20% and a yield strength of 2 GPa, during room-temperature and cryogenic deformation.
The shape and trajectory of a crack plays a crucial role in material fracture. High-precision experiments now directly capture this phenomenon, unveiling the intricate 3D nature of cracks.
When cracks creep forward in our three-dimensional world, they do so because of accompanying cracks racing perpendicular to the main direction of motion with almost sonic speed. Clever experiments have now directly demonstrated this phenomenon.