Spontaneous reorientation of bimetal multilayer nanowires

Multilayered structures are proposed to extend the size range at which metal nanowires can transform spontaneously from one orientation to another due to the interfacial stress. The principle is demonstrated on gold-palladium (Au-Pd) multilayer nanowires by using the molecular dynamics (MD) method and two distinctly different mechanisms are identified for the reorientation which take place mainly via slipping and twinning at low temperature and by amorphization and recrystallization at high temperature. Our results show that the time response of devices fabricated with the nanostructures is consequently affected. © 2007 American Institute of Physics.