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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 26 February 2011
Atomic defects, in the form of dislocation configurations, are identified following nanoindentation of Au(001) surfaces. Combined STM, dislocation theory and atomistic simulations fully characterise these defects and describe their motion. By comparing with AFM data the emission of those defects are correlated with the incipient stages of plasticity, the latter recognised from force vs penetration curves. The size distribution, the spatial pattern and the motion of these dislocations under stress have also been investigated and explained in terms of the theory of dislocations in a continuum.