Surface Stress Effects on the Resonant Properties of Silicon Nanowires

Abstract of paper recently accepted for publication in Journal of Applied Physics:

The purpose of the present work is to quantify the coupled effects of surface stresses and boundary conditions on the resonant properties of silicon nanowires.  We accomplish this by using the surface Cauchy-Born model, which is a nonlinear, finite deformation continuum mechanics model that enables the determination of the nanowire resonant frequencies including surface stress effects through solution of a standard finite element eigenvalue problem.  By calculating the resonant frequencies of both fixed/fixed and fixed/free <100> silicon nanowires with unreconstructed {100} surfaces using two formulations, one that accounts for surface stresses and one that does not, it is quantified how surface stresses cause variations in nanowire resonant frequencies from those expected from continuum beam theory.  We find that surface stresses significantly reduce the resonant frequencies of fixed/fixed nanowires as compared to continuum beam theory predictions, while small increases in resonant frequency with respect to continuum beam theory are found for fixed/free nanowires.  It is also found that the nanowire aspect ratio, and not the surface area to volume ratio, is the key parameter that correlates deviations in nanowire resonant frequencies due to surface stresses from continuum beam theory.