EFFECT OF SURFACE LAYER ON ELECTROMECHANICAL STABILITY OF TWEEZERS AND CANTILEVERS FABRICATED FROM CONDUCTIVE CYLINDRICAL NANOWIRES

Abstract

Herein, the impact of surface layer on the stability of nanoscale tweezers and cantilevers fabricated from nanowires with cylindrical cross section is studied. A modified continuum based on the Gurtin–Murdoch surface elasticity is applied for incorporating the presence of surface layer. Considering the cylindrical geometry of the nanowire, the presence of the Coulomb attraction and dispersion forces are incorporated in the derived formulations. Three different approaches, i.e. numerical differential quadrature method (DQM), an approximated homotopy perturbation method (HPM) and developing lumped parameter model (LPM) have been employed to solve the governing equations. The impact of surface layer on the instability of the system is demonstrated.