Size-dependent strain in fivefold twins of gold

Multiple twinned structures are common in low-dimensional materials. They are intrinsically strained due to the geometrical constraint imposed by the non-crystallographic fivefold symmetry. In this study, the strain distributions in sub-10 nm fivefold twins of gold have been analyzed by com­bining aberration-corrected transmission electron microscopy and first-principles calculations. Bending of atomic planes has been measured by both experiments and calculations, and its contribution to the filling of the angular gap was shown to be size-dependent.