Characterizing the effects of temperature on the thermal vibration properties of individual nanowires

Abstract

We study the effects of temperature on the properties of thermal vibrations of individual LaB6 single-crystal nanowires inside a transmission electron microscope using a method which combines high spatial resolution, high temporal resolution, and in situ temperature control. We find that the vibrations can be accurately modeled by classical formalisms, despite the small size of the resonator. We observe a vibration frequency decrease with temperature which enables us to measure the temperature coefficient of Young's modulus, finding a value of αE≅−9×10−5K−1 over the 300–700 K temperature range. We additionally introduce a method to precisely measure the vibration amplitude, which agrees well with values predicted by the Boltzmann equipartition theorem over the entire temperature range.