PNNL

Abstract

Molecular dynamics simulations with Stillinger-Weber potentials were used to study the response of wurtzite-type single crystalline GaN nanowires to a tensile strain along the axial direction. Nanowires with axial orientations along the [0001], [1 00] and [11 0] crystallographic directions, which correspond to experimentally synthesized nanowires, were studied. The results reveal that the nanowires with different axial orientations show distinctly different deformation behavior under loading. The brittle to ductile transition (BDT) was observed in the nanowires oriented along the [0001] direction and the BDT temperatures lie in the temperature range between 1500 and 1800 K. The nanowires oriented along the [11 0] direction exhibit slip in the {01 0} planes; whereas the nanowires oriented along the [1 00] direction fracture in a cleavage manner under tensile loading. It should be emphasized that multiple yield stresses were observed during different stages in the [11 0]-oriented nanowires. In general, Young's modulus of the GaN nanowires decreases with decreasing diameter of the nanowires.