Surface plasmon resonance-induced stiffening of silver nanowires

Abstract

We report the results of a computational, atomistic electrodynamics study of the effects of electromagnetic waves on the mechanical properties, and specifically the Youngâ €™ s modulus of silver nanowires. We find that the Youngâ €™ s modulus of the nanowires is strongly dependent on the optical excitation energy, with a peak enhancement occurring at the localized surface plasmon resonance frequency. When the nanowire is excited at the plasmon resonance frequency, the Youngâ €™ s modulus is found to increase linearly with increasing nanowire aspect ratio, with a stiffening of nearly 15% for a 2â €‰nm cross section silver nanowire with an aspect ratio of 3.5. Furthermore, our results suggest that this plasmon resonance-induced stiffening is stronger for larger diameter nanowires for a given aspect ratio. Our study demonstrates a novel approach to actively tailoring and enhancing the mechanical properties of metal nanowires.