title: Strengthening brittle semiconductor nanowires through stacking faults: insights from in situ mechanical testing.
abstract: Quantitative mechanical testing of single-crystal GaAs nanowires was conducted using in situ deformation transmission electron microscopy. Both zinc-blende and wurtzite structured GaAs nanowires showed essentially elastic deformation until bending failure associated with buckling occurred. These nanowires fail at compressive stresses of ~5.4 GPa and 6.2 GPa, respectively, which are close to those values calculated by molecular dynamics simulations. Interestingly, wurtzite nanowires with a high density of stacking faults fail at a very high compressive stress of ~9.0 GPa, demonstrating that the nanowires can be strengthened through defect engineering. The reasons for the observed phenomenon are discussed.
authors.affiliation: School of Aerospace, Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering, The University of Sydney , Sydney, New South Wales 2006, Australia.
authors.forename: Bin
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Qiang
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.forename: Yujie
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Xiaozhou
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Liao
authors.forename: Chunsheng
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.forename: Hark Hoe
authors.initials: HH
authors.lastname: Tan
authors.forename: Yiu-Wing
authors.initials: YW
authors.lastname: Mai
authors.forename: Jin
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zou
authors.forename: Simon P
authors.initials: SP
authors.lastname: Ringer
authors.forename: Huajian
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.forename: Chennupati
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Jagadish