Electric field effects on Young's molulus of nanowires

As an important component of nanodevices and nanomachine constructions, the mechanical performance of nanowires (NWs) has been a subject of intense research efforts due to gaining relevance in controlling functionality of nanoelectromechanical systems (NEMS); meanwhile, one of the characteristics of the NEMS is the dependence of the functionality of the systems upon the applied electric field. The study of the electric effects on the Young's modulus of nanostructures is of certain usefulness in the design of NEMS and the precise measurement of mechanical properties of one-dimensional nanostructures. This paper reviews the origin of the size-dependence of the elastic property of NWs and the factors inuencing the discrepancies and inconsistencies in the measured values of the Young's modulus for the NW, besides the surface effects, nonlinear effects, the electromechanical coupling effects as a possible effect responsible for the differences in quantitative and qualitative performance of the measured Young's modulus for the NWs versus the diameter are clarified.