Surface stress effects on the critical buckling strains of silicon nanowires

The objective of this paper is to quantify how nanoscale surface stresses impact the critical buckling strains of silicon nanowires. These insights are gained by using nonlinear finite element calculations based upon a multiscale, finite deformation constitutive model that incorporates nanoscale surface stress and surface elastic effects to study the buckling behavior of silicon nanowires that have cross sectional dimensions between 10 and 25 nm under axial compressive loading. The key finding is that, in contrast to existing surface elasticity solutions, the critical buckling strains are found to show little deviation from the classical bulk Euler solution. The present results suggest that accounting for axial strain relaxation due to surface stresses may be necessary to improve the accuracy and predictive capability of analytic linear surface elastic theories.

► Nonlinear, multiscale, finite-element study of surface stress effects on the buckling strains.
► Critical buckling strains of silicon nanowires are similar to those from Euler buckling theory.
► Relaxation strains due to surface stresses are critical in interpreting the buckling strains.