Abstract: Structural instabilities of single-walled carbon nanotubes（SWNTs） of two typical settings,which are respectively fixed at only one end and at both ends,were investigated under electron beam irradiation by our developed in-situ transmission electron microscopy observation technique.It was observed that the tube fixed only at one end preferentially shrunk in axis direction first,then shrunk and necked in diameter,and finally formed a carbon cagelike strand structure at the tube free end whereas the tube fixed at both ends merely shrunk and necked in diameter with the similar formation of carbon cage-like strand structure.It is especially intriguing that the necked carbon cage-like strand structure in the latter case was able to re-fuse after breaking and thus demonstrated a strong wetting ability and an amazing athermal plastic flow on the surface of the SWNT fixed at both ends under the electron beam irradiation at room temperature.The above athermal structural instabilities of SWNTs as induced by electron beam irradiation can be well accounted for by the completely new concepts of the surface nanocurvature and ultrafast energetic beam-induced soft mode and lattice instability as we recently proposed.