Atomistic simulations of the tensile and melting behavior of silicon nanowires

Molecular dynamics simulations with Stillinger-Weber potential are used to study the tensile and melting behavior of single-crystalline silicon nanowires (SiNWs). The tensile tests show that the tensile behavior of the SiNWs is strongly dependent on the simulation temperature, the strain rate, and the diameter of the nanowires. For a given diameter, the critical load significantly decreases as the temperature increases and also as the strain rate decreases. Additionally, the critical load increases as the diameter increases. Moreover, the melting tests demonstrate that both melting temperature and melting heat of the SiNWs decrease with decreasing diameter and length, due to the increase in surface energy. The melting process of SiNWs with increasing temperature is also investigated.