Elongation and breaking mechanisms of gold nanowires under a wide range of tensile conditions

Published

August 27, 2009

Author(s)

Francesca Tavazza, Lyle E. Levine, Anne M. Chaka

Abstract

Semistatic density functional theory is used to explore the evolution of [110] and [111] gold nanowires during tensile deformation under a wide range of conditions, including different tensile axes (along high- and low-symmetry directions), nanowire shapes and effective strain rates. Large structural changes are observed during the elongation. The analysis of such low-energy intermediate configurations provide quantitative information about the underlying energy landscape that cannot be obtained through experiments or more approximate modeling methods and four stable intermediate atomic structures are identified. A rich diversity of deformation pathways is uncovered, that converge to only two final local configurations with reproducible breaking strengths, in agreement with experimental results.

Citation

Journal of Applied Physics

Volume

106

Pub Type

Journals

Download Paper

https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3200957

Local Download

Keywords

Gold nanowires, DFT, density functional theory

Citation

Tavazza, F. , Levine, L. and Chaka, A. (2009), Elongation and breaking mechanisms of gold nanowires under a wide range of tensile conditions, Journal of Applied Physics, [online], https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3200957, https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=901152 (Accessed October 10, 2025)