Room temperature electron beam sensitive viscoplastic response of ultra-ductile amorphous olivine films

• At small scale and room temperature a-olivine is ductile with fracture strain up to 29 %. • a-olivine becomes viscous and reaches much higher ductility under the electron beam accelerated at 80 kV and 200 kV. • Radiolysis is the prominent mechanism that promotes ductility of a-olivine. The mechanical properties of amorphous olivine (a-olivine) deformed at room temperature are investigated in situ in a TEM under uniaxial tension using a Push-to-Pull (PTP) device. Thin films of a-olivine were produced by pulsed laser deposition (PLD). With or without electron irradiation, a-olivine films deform plastically, with a gradual transition that makes impossible the determination of a precise threshold. The strength attains values up to 2.5 GPa. The increasing strain-rate in load control results in an apparent softening with stress drop. The fracture strain reaches values close to 30 % without e-beam irradiation. Under electron illumination at 200 kV, the strength is lower, around 1.7 GPa, while higher elongations close to 36 % are obtained. Alternating beam-off and beam-on sequences lead to exceptionally large fracture strains equal to 68 % at 200 kV and 139 % at 80 kV. EELS measurements were performed to characterize the interaction between the electron beam and a-olivine. At a voltage of 80 kV, radiolysis accompanied by oxygen release dominates whereas at high voltage (300 kV) the interaction is dominated by knock-on type defects. Radiolysis is also the main interaction mechanism at 200 kV with low exposition which corresponds to most of our in situ TEM deformation experiments. To interpret the mechanical data, a simple 1D model has been developed to rationalize the load transfer between the PTP device and the specimen. The strain-rate sensitivity is 6 to 10 times higher when a-olivine is deformed under electron irradiation.