A new microscopic procedure for the visualization of structural rearrangements in amorphous polymers during their deformation to high strains is described. This approach involves the deposition of thin (several nanometers) metallic coatings onto the surface of the deformed polymer. Subsequent deformation entails the formation of a relief in the deposited coating that can be studied by direct microscopic methods. The above phenomenon of relief formation provides information concerning the deformation mechanism of the polymer support. Experimental data obtained with the use of this procedure are reported, and this evidence allows analysis of the specific features of structural rearrangements during deformation of the amorphous polymer at temperatures above and below its glass transition temperature under the conditions of plane compression and stretching, uniaxial tensile drawing and shrinkage, rolling, and environmental crazing. This direct structural approach originally justified in the works by Academician V.A. Kargin appears to be highly efficient for the study of amorphous polymer systems.

The review focuses on results obtained in the development of a new approach to determination of the stress strain properties (tensile strength, yield point, plastic deformation under uniaxial stretching) of nanolayers of solid materials. The approach is based on analysis of parameters of the microrelief generated by strains in polymer films with hard thin coatings. A significant increase in the tensile strength and ductility of noble metal coatings under uniaxial stretching at the metal layer thickness less than 30 nm is demonstrated for the first time. This substantiates the assumption of a specific state of nanolayers of solid materials. The developed method also enables evaluation of the effect of characteristic defects in solids on their stress strain behavior. It was found that the stress strain properties of nanocoatings depend on the physical state of the polymer substrate. A possible mechanism of the revealed phenomena is suggested.

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