Rate-Dependent Energy Release Mechanism of Gold Nanowires under Elongation

Abstract

The mechanism of the formation of different junction structures of gold nanowires under stretching has been studied by comprehensive molecular dynamics (MD) simulations using the second-moment approximation of the tight-binding (TB-SMA) potential. The simulations (540 MD runs in total) reveal that there is an inherent rate-dependent energy release law that unifies the effects of the system size, the temperature, and elongation rate on the dynamic elongations of gold nanowires.