Mechanical Properties of Gold Nanocontacts Studied by Monte Carlo Simulation

抄録

The Monte Carlo method has been applied to the study on the size dependence of mechanical properties in gold nanocontacts. Using the Metropolis method, thermal-equilibrium atomic configurations in model nanocontacts have been followed during elongation of the contacts. The Morse potential has been used as an interatomic interaction. The relation between the tensile force and strain, the change in atomic configuration during elongation, Young's modulus and the yield stress have been investigated for three different-sized nanocontacts. The simulations show that Young's modulus and the yield stress increase as the contact size increases. While the Young's modulus tends to increase gradually to the bulk value with increasing contact size, the yield stress is expected to turn decreasing with increasing size above a certain size.