An investigation into the axial deformation of helical multi-shell gold nanowires Original Research Article

Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations are performed to investigate the mechanical properties and phase transformation behavior of helical multi-shell (HMS) gold nanowires (7-1, 11-4 and 14-7-1) during compression tests performed at a temperature of 4 K. The results indicate that the HMS gold nanowires transform from an original HMS structure to face-centered cubic (FCC) and hexagonal close-packed (HCP) structures during the compression process.