Mechanical tensile behavior-induced multi-level electronic transport of ultra-thin SiC NWs

Mechanical tensile behavior and its influence on electron transport are especially appealing for ultra-thin SiC Nanowires (NWs). Our studies theoretically show that ultra-thin SiC-[100] NWs in different diameters possess much better plasticity than SiC NWs in large scales and exhibit non-traditionally multiple-fluctuating stress-strain curves due to the chain-by-chain fracture of NWs. Noticeably, NWs possesses almost the same fracture stain and the corresponding stress decreases with diameter. Influenced by the strain, ultra-high transmission coefficients appear (exceed 1) and stable electron transmission can be kept in some strain range for all sizes of SiC NWs. An obvious increase of transmission peaks occurs in the thinnest SiC atomic chain at larger strains while the strain has almost no effect on the number of transmission peaks for other thicker SiC NWs. The generation of monatomic chains would weaken the electron transport of thicker SiC NWs. Internally, C elements and p-orbital contribute more in electron transport and stretching strains have almost no effect on such contribution assignments. This work provides stronger support for applications of ultra-thin SiC-[100] NWs in nano-piezoelectric devices and nanoelectronics in mechanically disturbed environments, and an effective way to strengthen electron transport of NWs.