Atomistic study on size-dependent mechanical properties of monatomic tantalum metallic glass nanowires

Abstract The mechanical responses of monatomic tantalum metallic glass nanowires with the width varying from 4 to 22 nm to uniaxial tension and compression loads have been studied using the molecular dynamics simulations, for investigating the size impact on their mechanical properties. The simulations demonstrate that, at the considered temperatures of 50 and 298 K, the elastic moduli and the compressive strength of tantalum metallic glass nanowires are both increasing with the increase of nanowire width, whereas no obvious size dependence of the tensile strength of metallic glass nanowires is observed. It is shown that the surface and internal stress states can be used for explaining the relation between mechanical properties of monatomic tantalum metallic glass nanowires and the wire diameter.