Strain rate induced amorphization in metallic nanowires

Using molecular dynamics simulations with a many-body force field, we studied the deformation of single crystal Ni and NiCu random alloy nanowires subjected to uniform strain rates but kept at 300 K. For all strain rates, the Ni nanowire is elastic up to 7.5% strain with a yield stress of 5.5 GPa, far above that of hulk Ni. At high strain rates, we find that for both systems the crystalline phase transforms continuously to an amorphous phase, exhibiting a dramatic change in atomic short-range order and a near vanishing of the tetragonal sheer elastic constant perpendicular tb the tensile direction. This amorphization which occurs directly from the homogeneous, elastically deformed system with no chemical or structural inhomogeneities exhibits a new mode of amorphization. [S0031-9007(99)08867-5].