Ultra-strength and fracture of metallic and semiconductor nanowires

Abstract

In this work, we report our quantitative nanomechanical study of metallic and semiconductor nanowires for their mechanical properties and fracture behavior, by in situ SEM/TEM tensile testing. Ultra-strength phenomenon has been observed for both ultrathin gold nanowires and single crystalline silicon nanowires, while their underlying mechanisms are different. We also discovered different fracture modes for the fractures of ultrathin gold nanowires and elucidated their corresponding mechanisms. While for silicon nanowires, despite ultra-large elasticity, they still failed in typical brittle fracture.