With the ongoing trend of miniaturizing electronic devices, the dimensions of metallic materials used in these devices decrease continuously from sub-microns to a few nanometers. Small-sized materials usually exhibit superior mechanical properties and dramatically different mechanical behaviors from their bulk counterparts. Deep insights into the atomistic mechanical behaviors in small-scale metals are of vital importance for designing new nanostructured materials to guarantee the reliability and stability of future nanodevices. This review firstly presents state-of-the-art experimental techniques and sample preparation methods for atomic-scale in situ deformation dynamics on small-sized metals. Then, recent advances in atomic-scale experimental mechanics are summarized, including size-dependent defect nucleation, twinning-related mechanism, phase transformation, diffusional deformation and pseudoelasticity. Finally, current limitations and future directions for research in the field of atomistic experimental mechanics are discussed.

随着电子设备的小型化的趋势，这些设备中使用的金属材料的尺寸从亚微米连续减小到几纳米。小型材料通常表现出优异的机械性能，并且与大型材料相比机械性能显着不同。对小规模金属中原子机械行为的深入了解对于设计新的纳米结构材料以确保未来纳米器件的可靠性和稳定性至关重要。这篇综述首先介绍了原位原子尺度的最新实验技术和样品制备方法小型金属的变形动力学。然后，总结了原子尺度实验力学的最新进展，包括尺寸依赖性缺陷成核，孪晶相关机理，相变，扩散变形和拟弹性。最后，讨论了原子实验力学领域的研究现状和局限。