Effects of irradiation on the mechanical behavior of twined SiC nanowires

Irradiation is known to bring new features in one-dimensional nano materials. In this study, we used molecular dynamics simulations to investigate the irradiation effects on twined SiC nanowires. Defects tend to accumulate from outside toward inside of the twined SiC nanowires with increasing irradiation dose, leading to a transition from brittle to ductile failure under tensile load. Atomic chains are formed in the ductile failure process. The first-principles calculations show that most of the atomic chains are metallic. (C) 2013 American Institute of Physics. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4795162]