Elastic and plastic effects on heterogeneous nucleation and nanowire formation

Abstract

We investigate theoretically the effects of elastic and plastic deformations on heterogeneous nucleation and nanowire formation. In the first case, the influence of the confinement of the critical nucleus between two parallel misfitting substrates is investigated using scaling arguments. We present phase diagrams giving the nature of the nucleation regime as a function of the driving force and the degree of confinement. We complement this analytical study by amplitude equations simulations. In the second case, the influence of a screw dislocation inside a nanowire on the development of the morphological surface instability of the wire, related to the Rayleigh-Plateau instability, is examined. Here the screw dislocation provokes a torsion of the wire known as Eshelby twist. Numerical calculations using the finite element method and the amplitude equations are performed to support analytical investigations. It is shown that the screw dislocation promotes the Rayleigh-Plateau instability.