title: Plasticity-mediated collapse and recrystallization in hollow copper nanowires: a molecular dynamics simulation.
abstract: We study the thermal stability of hollow copper nanowires using molecular dynamics simulation. We find that the plasticity-mediated structural evolution leads to transformation of the initial hollow structure to a solid wire. The process involves three distinct stages, namely, collapse, recrystallization and slow recovery. We calculate the time scales associated with different stages of the evolution process. Our findings suggest a plasticity-mediated mechanism of collapse and recrystallization. This contradicts the prevailing notion of diffusion driven transport of vacancies from the interior to outer surface being responsible for collapse, which would involve much longer time scales as compared to the plasticity-based mechanism.
authors.affiliation: Department of Condensed Matter Physics and Material Sciences, S. N. Bose National Centre for Basic Sciences, Salt Lake, Kolkata 700 098, India.
authors.forename: Amlan
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Dutta
authors.affiliation: Department of Condensed Matter Physics and Material Sciences, S. N. Bose National Centre for Basic Sciences, Salt Lake, Kolkata 700 098, India; Unit for Nanoscience and Technology, Department of Condensed Matter Physics and Material Sciences, S. N. Bose National Centre for Basic Sciences, Salt Lake, Kolkata 700 098, India.
authors.forename: Arup Kumar
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: Raychaudhuri
authors.affiliation: Department of Condensed Matter Physics and Material Sciences, S. N. Bose National Centre for Basic Sciences, Salt Lake, Kolkata 700 098, India; Thematic Unit of Excellence on Computational Materials Science, S. N. Bose National Centre for Basic Sciences, Salt Lake, Kolkata 700 098, India.
authors.forename: Tanusri
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Saha-Dasgupta
keywords: dislocations; molecular dynamics; nanowire; thermal stability