  The mechanical properties of Cadmium telluride (CdTe) nanowire have become
focus of interest now-a-days due to its promising application in
opto-electro-mechanical nanodevices. Inthis study, molecular dynamics
simulations have been used to investigate the mechanical behavior of Zinc
Blende (ZB) crystal structured CdTe nanowires (NWs) by varying size,
temperature, crystal orientation and strain rate under tension and compression.
Results show that the fracture strength of the [111]-oriented CdTe NWs is
always higher than that of the [110]-oriented CdTe NWs under tension whereas in
compression, the fracture strength of the [111]-oriented CdTe NWs is
significantly lower than that of the [110]-oriented CdTe NWs. Moreover, under
tensile load, void in ZB [111]-oriented CdTe NWs has been observed which is a
new failure mechanism found in this study. It has also been observed that size
has negligible effect on the tensile behavior but in compression the behavior
is clearly size dependent. Both tensile and compressive strengths show an
inverse relation with temperature. When tensile load is applied along NWs
growth direction, the [111]-oriented CdTe NWs fail by creating void in [10-1]
direction regardless of temperature and NW size. Under compression, the
[111]-oriented nanowire show buckling and plasticity. Finally, the impact of
strain rate on [111]-oriented ZB CdTe NWs is also studied where higher fracture
strengths and strains at a higher strain rates have been found under both
tension and compression. With increasing the strain rate, the number of voids
is also increased in the NWs.This study will help to design CdTe NWs based
devices efficiently by presenting in-depth understanding of failure behavior of
the [111]-oriented CdTe NWs.
