The study of textured polycrystalline nanofilms using molecular simulation

The elastic properties of textured polycrystalline nanofilms with fixed out-of-plane normal direction were investigated using molecular dynamics method. The parallel computing technique was employed to increase the computational efficiency. Both the grain size and film thickness effects on the elastic properties of the copper nanofilm were examined. It is shown from the simulation that the elastic properties (i.e., Young's modulus and Poisson's ratio) of textured polycrystalline nanofilms depend on the grain size and the film thickness. As the grain size of the nanofilm become larger, the Young's modulus increase but the Poisson's ratio decreases. Moreover, as the thickness of the nanofilm increases, the Young's modulus increase.