ABSTRACT
Study of the mechanical behavior of materials at nanoscale is essential to understand the design strategy for futuristic materials and the underlying mechanism of deformation behavior of existing materials. In this perspective, this chapter elaborates structural features of materials that are likely to change/appear/disappear during deformation processes as well their influence on the deformation behavior of materials. A detailed discussion on the structure of different materials and associated defects from the atomic level to macro-scale are well defined. Certain correlations among the structural features across the scale and dimension for materials of different categories have also been explained. Overall, this chapter represents essential discussion on structural characteristics of materials in order to get a proper insight into the mechanical properties and deformation behavior of materials.
