Buckling of ZnO nanowires under uniaxial compression

Instability and buckling characterization of vertical well aligned single crystal of ZnO nanowires grown on SiC substrate was done quantitatively by nanoindentation technique. The critical load was found to be 477 μ N and the corresponding buckling energy was 3.46 × 10 − 11 J . Based on the Euler model for long nanowire and Johnson model which is an extension of the Euler model for intermediate nanowire, the modulus of elasticity of single wire was calculated. Also, the critical buckling stress and strain were determined for the as grown single wire of ZnO. We found how the modulus of elasticity is dependent on the slenderness ratio.