Effects of radiation damage on the yielding and fracture of nanowires

Since free surfaces act as perfect sinks for radiation-induced defects, nanowires, owing to their high surface-to-volume ratio, are considered to be radiation tolerant. But the question remains on how this tolerance translates to their yielding and fracture behavior. Atomistic simulations of irradiated gold nanowires reported here show the existence of a size regime where the yield stress is affected by the accumulation of radiation damage. Our analysis also shows that, regardless of the diameter of the nanowire, early on during tensile loading, much of the radiation-induced defect content initially present in the wire is rapidly cleaned by the motion of pre-existing dislocations as well as dislocations emitted from the surface of the wire. This defect removal process resets the crystallographic configuration of the wire which subsequently deforms and fractures via the same mechanisms that occur in pristine, un-irradiated nanowires. We conclude that the fracture behavior of nanowires in the size and dose regimes tested is unaffected by radiation damage.