Reversible Manipulations of Room Temperature Mechanical and Quantum Transport Properties in Nanowire Junctions.

The electrical conductance and principal structural and mechanical properties of gold nanowires, exhibiting reversibility in elongation-compression cycles at ambient conditions, were investigated using pin-plate experiments and molecular dynamics simulations. Underlying the reversible nature of the nanowires are their crystalline ordered structure and their atomistic structural transformation mechanisms, involving stages of stress accumulation and stress relief occurring through multiple-glide processes and characterized by a high critical yield stress value. [S0031-9007(96)00879-4]