Mechanical properties of individual InAs nanowires studied by tensile tests

Mechanical properties of individual InAs nanowires (NWs) synthesized by metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) and molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) methods are studied by in-situ tensile tests in a scanning electron microscope and their fracture strength and Young's modulus are obtained. The two types of NWs both exhibit brittle fracture with a maximum elastic strain up to similar to 10%. Their fracture strength distributes in a similar range of similar to 2-5GPa with a general trend of increasing with NW volume decrease, which is well described by Weibull statistic with a smaller Weibull modulus and a higher characteristic strength for MOCVD NWs. Young's modulus is determined to be 16-78GPa with an average value of 45 GPa and no dependence on NW diameter for MOCVD NWs and 34-79GPa with an average value of 58GPa for MBE NWs. (C) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC.