Cryogenic temperature mechanical behavior of solid mercury

Tensile mechanical behavior of as-cast solid mercury which is relevant to Josephson integrated circuit packaging applications has been studied at 77 K and between 4.2 and 20 K. It was found that solid mercury is ductile, particularly so at temperatures close to 4.2 K. Further, at and near 4.2 K solid mercury exhibits pronounced work hardening, high tensile strength, and markedly serrated flow behavior. A possible explanation of these observations is presented, based on existing information on deformation and transformation characteristics of mercury at cryogenic temperatures.