Simulation
A 12 nm diameter silicon nanosphere, deformed by 2.3 nm in an atomistic simulation conducted by Mike Baskes of Los Alamos National Laboratory. At the top and the bottom the atoms are transformed into an amorphous state with no dislocations detected. Such simulations supported the hardness results measured experimentally by Bill Gerberich's team at Minnesota.
Credit: M I Baskes, Los Alamos National Laboratory.