Atomistic study of the buckling of gold nanowires

Abstract In this work, we present results from atomistic simulations of gold nanowires under axial compression, with a focus on examining the effects of both axial and surface orientation effects on the buckling behavior. This was accomplished by using molecular statics simulations while considering three different crystallographic systems: 〈1 0 0〉/{1 0 0}, 〈1 0 0〉/{1 1 0} and 〈1 1 0〉/{1 1 0}{1 0 0}, with aspect ratios spanning from 20 to 50 and cross-sectional dimensions ranging from 2.45 to 5.91 nm. The simulations indicate that there is a deviation from the inverse square length dependence of critical forces predicted from traditional linear elastic Bernoulli–Euler and Timoshenko beam theories, where the nature of the deviation from the perfect inverse square length behavior differs for different crystallographic systems. This variation is found to be strongly correlated to either stiffening or increased compliance of the tangential stiffness due to the influence of nonlinear elasticity, which leads to normalized critical forces that decrease with decreasing aspect ratio for the 〈1 0 0〉/{1 0 0} and 〈1 0 0〉/{1 1 0} systems, but increase with decreasing aspect ratio for the 〈1 1 0〉/{1 1 0}{1 0 0} system. In contrast, it was found that the critical strains are all lower than their bulk counterparts, and that the critical strains decrease with decreasing cross-sectional dimensions; the lower strains may be an effect emanating from the presence of the surfaces, which are all more elastically compliant than the bulk and thus give rise to a more compliant flexural rigidity.