Mechanical properties of SiC nanowires determined by scanning electron and field emission microscopies

We present here comparative measurements by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and field emission (FE) of the mechanical resonances of singly clamped, batch-fabricated SiC nanowires as well as an extensive theoretical description. The mechanical resonances of six nanowires, which were glued to the ends of tungsten support tips, were electrostatically excited and detected visually in the SEM configuration and then by FE microscopy image processing. The large tensions generated by electric field pulling in FE that tune the resonance frequencies and the complex boundary conditions at both the free and clamped nanowire ends complicate the interpretation of the resonance frequencies necessary for extracting intrinsic mechanical parameters. Our model fully takes into account these effects and results in an excellent agreement with the measured resonance modes in both configurations. Analytical solutions with their validity conditions are given for the low and high tension ranges and semianalytical solutions for the intermediary range. Viable estimates of Young’s modulus are thus achieved for the ultra high vacuum (UHV) environment of FE. Progressive in situ cleaning was performed in the FE-UHV configuration in the range of 600–1350 K, which increased the Q factor of the first mechanical resonance by up to ×100 and did not alter the value of the Young’s modulus measured previously in the SEM configuration. The agreement between the SEM and FE techniques means that we can now profit from their different strengths for better understanding the mechanics of nanowires and nanotubes.