Measurement of the bending strength of vapor-liquid-solid grown silicon nanowires

作者：Hoffmann S^*; Utke I; Moser B; Michler J; Christiansen SH; Schmidt V; Senz S; Werner P; Gosele U; Ballif C

来源：Nano Letters, 2006, 6(4): 622-625.

DOI：10.1021/nl052223z

The fracture strength of silicon nanowires grown on a [111] silicon substrate by the vapor-liquid-solid process was measured. The nanowires, with diameters between 100 and 200 nm and a typical length of 2 mu m, were subjected to bending tests using an atomic force microscopy setup inside a scanning electron microscope. The average strength calculated from the maximum nanowire deflection before fracture was around 12 GPa, which is 6% of the Young's modulus of silicon along the nanowire direction. This value is close to the theoretical fracture strength, which indicates that surface or volume defects, if present, play only a minor role in fracture initiation.

• 出版日期2006-4