This thesis transports you to a wonderful and fascinating small-scale world and tells you the origin of several new phenomena. The investigative tool is the improved discrete dislocation-based multi-scale approaches, bridging the continuum modeling and atomistic simulation. Mechanism-based theoretical models are put forward to conveniently predict the mechanical responses and defect evolution. The findings presented in this thesis yield valuable new guidelines for microdevice design, reliability analysis and defect tuning.

This thesis transports you to a wonderful and fascinating small-scale world and tells you the origin of several new phenomena. The investigative tool is the improved discrete dislocation-based multi-scale approaches, bridging the continuum modeling and atomistic simulation. Mechanism-based theoretical models are put forward to conveniently predict the mechanical responses and defect evolution. The findings presented in this thesis yield valuable new guidelines for microdevice design, reliability analysis and defect tuning.

Dislocation Based Crystal Plasticity: Theory and Computation at Micron and Submicron Scale provides a comprehensive introduction to the continuum and discreteness dislocation mechanism-based theories and computational methods of crystal plasticity at the micron and submicron scale. Sections cover the fundamental concept of conventional crystal plasticity theory at the macro-scale without size effect, strain gradient crystal plasticity theory based on Taylar law dislocation, mechanism at the mesoscale, phase-field theory of crystal plasticity, computation at the submicron scale, including single crystal plasticity theory, and the discrete-continuous model of crystal plasticity with three-dimensional discrete dislocation dynamics coupling finite element method (DDD-FEM). Three kinds of plastic deformation mechanisms for submicron pillars are systematically presented. Further sections discuss dislocation nucleation and starvation at high strain rate and temperature effect for dislocation annihilation mechanism.