Mechanics of crystalline boron nanowires

The mechanical response of crystalline boron nanowires was studied with the mechanical resonance method and tensile testing. The mechanical resonances of cantilevered boron nanowires were excited and their frequencies were used to obtain the Young’s modulus of the nanowires, according to simple beam theory. The influence of non-ideal boundary conditions on the nanowire’s resonance frequency was investigated and is presented. Tensile loading measurements on boron nanowires were performed to obtain the fracture strength and Young’s modulus. The modulus values from tensile tests are consistent with the set of values obtained from the mechanical resonance tests.