Molecular Dynamics Simulation on Plastic Deformation of Metallic Nanowires

We have studied the initial stage of plastic deformation behavior of metallic nanowire of pure nickel, by using molecular dynamics methods. In these simulations, we applied uniform strain along c-axis at strain rate of 0.5%/100ps, 0.5%/10ps and 0.1%/2ps. We have observed the formation of stacking faults by movement of a partial dislocation, and the development of stacking faults to deformation twins at initial down event of stress-strain curve. Since twinning is also seen in at the slowest strain rate in our simulations and direct observation of nanometer-sized gold by high resolution transmission microscopy at very slow strain rate by Kizuka (i) , the twinning seems to be a characteristic of deformation mechanism in metallic nanowires.