Ultralarge elastic deformation of nanoscale diamond

Diamonds have substantial hardness and durability, but attempting to deform diamonds usually results in brittle fracture. We demonstrate ultralarge, fully reversible elastic deformation of nanoscale (~300 nanometers) single-crystalline and polycrystalline diamond needles. For single-crystalline diamond, the maximum tensile strains (up to 9%) approached the theoretical elastic limit, and the corresponding maximum tensile stress reached ~89 to 98 gigapascals. After combining systematic computation