No abstract

Nanocrystalline metals, i.e., metals in which the grain size is in the nanometer range, have a range of technologically interesting properties including increased hardness and yield strength. We present atomic-scale simulations of the plastic behavior of nanocrystalline copper. The simulations show that the main deformation mode is sliding in the grain boundaries through a large number of uncorrelated events, where a few atoms ͑or a few tens of atoms͒ slide with respect to each other. Little dislocation activity is seen in the grain interiors. The localization of the deformation to the grain boundaries leads to a hardening as the grain size is increased ͑reverse Hall-Petch effect͒, implying a maximum in hardness for a grain size above the ones studied here. We investigate the effects of varying temperature, strain rate, and porosity, and discuss the relation to recent experiments. At increasing temperatures the material becomes softer in both the plastic and elastic regime. Porosity in the samples result in a softening of the material; this may be a significant effect in many experiments. ͓S0163-1829͑99͒05941-X͔

Multishell helical gold nanowires were recently imaged by electron microscopy. We show theoretically that the contact with the gold tips at either end of the wire plays a crucial role and that local minima in the string tension rather than the total wire free energy determine the nanowire stability. Density functional electronic structure calculations of the simplest and thinnest coaxial gold and silver wires of variable radius and chirality were carried out. We found a string tension minimum for a single-tube gold nanowire that is chiral and consists of seven strands, in striking agreement with observation. In contrast, no such minimum was found for silver, where the s-d competition leading to surface reconstruction is lacking.

We have examined theoretically the spontaneous thinning process of tipsuspended nanowires, and subsequently studied the structure and stability of the monatomic gold wires recently observed by Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM). The methods used include thermodynamics, classical many-body force simulations, Local Density (LDA) and Generalized Gradient (GGA) electronic structure calculations as well as ab-initio simulations including the two tips. The wire thinning is well explained in terms of a thermodynamic tip suction driving migration of surface atoms from the wire to the tips. For the same reason the monatomic wire becomes progressively stretched. Surprisingly, however, all calculations so far indicate that the stretched monatomic gold wire should be unstable against breaking, contrary to the apparent experimental stability. The possible reasons for the observed stability are discussed. pacs numbers: 79.60.Jv 61.46.+w 71.24.+q 73.61-r Typeset using REVT E X