  The influence of pre-strain and temperature on the superior properties
exhibited by an Nb nanowire embedded in a NiTi shape memory alloy (SMA) are
investigated via molecular dynamics simulations. To this end, a new Nb-Ni-Ti
ternary interatomic potential based on the second nearest-neighbor modified
embedded-atom method (2NN MEAM) is developed and employed. The origin of the
unique phenomena of quasi-linear elasticity, slim hysteresis, and reduction in
Young's modulus observed for pre-strained nanowire-SMA composites is uncovered.
The results demonstrate the importance of plastic deformation in the embedded
Nb nanowires and reveal how the deformation facilitates the just-mentioned,
unprecedented phenomena. A simple and straightforwardly obtainable descriptor
to correlate and monitor Young's modulus evolution during pre-straining is
proposed. Furthermore, our simulations suggest that the desired Young's modulus
can be obtained for a wide range of application temperatures through
appropriate pre-straining.
