Atomic-scale connective neck formation and characterization

Uniaxial tension-induced fracture in gold nanowires with the dependence on size and atomic vacancies

The size effect dominates the rupture of gold nanowires, which is also related to atomic vacancies in a single-layer crystalline plane.

Shock-induced breaking of the nanowire with the dependence of crystallographic orientation and strain rate

The failure of the metallic nanowire has raised concerns due to its applied reliability in nanoelectromechanical system. In this article, the breaking failure is studied for the [100], [110], and [111] single-crystal copper nanowires at different strain rates. The statistical breaking position distributions of the nanowires have been investigated to give the effects of strain rate and crystallographic orientation on micro-atomic fluctuation in the symmetric stretching of the nanowires. When the strain rate is less than 0.26% ps-1, macro-breaking position distributions exhibit the anisotropy of micro-atomic fluctuation. However, when the strain rate is larger than 3.54% ps-1, the anisotropy is not obvious because of strong symmetric shocks.

Shock-induced breaking in the gold nanowire with the influence of defects and strain rates

Defects in metallic nanowires have raised concerns about the applied reliability of the nanowires in nanoelectromechanical systems. In this paper, molecular dynamics simulations are used to study the deformation and breaking failure of the [100] single-crystal gold nanowires containing defects at different strain rates. The statistical breaking position distributions of the nanowires show mechanical shocks play a critical role in the deformation of nanowires at different strain rates, and deformation mechanism of the nanowire containing defects is based on a competition between shocks and defects in the deformation process of the nanowire. At low strain rate of 1.0% ps(-1), defect ratio of 2% has changed the deformation mechanism because micro-atomic fluctuation is in an equilibrium state. However, owing to strong symmetric shocks, the sensitivity of defects is not obvious before a defect ratio of 25% at high strain rate of 5.0% ps(-1).

Properties of Metallic Nanowires: From Conductance Quantization to Localization

Material structures of reduced dimensions exhibit electrical and mechanical properties different from those in the bulk. Measurements of room-temperature electronic transport in pulled metallic nanowires are presented, demonstrating that the conductance characteristics depend on the length, lateral dimensions, state and degree of disorder, and elongation mechanism of the wire. Conductance during the elongation of short wires (length l approximately 50 angstroms) exhibits periodic quantization steps with characteristic dips, correlating with the order-disorder states of layers of atoms in the wire predicted by molecular dynamics simulations. The resistance R of wires as long as l approximately 400 angstroms exhibits localization characteristics with In R(l) approximately l(2).