Mechanical response of bilayer silicene nanoribbons under uniaxial tension

Understanding the behaviour of nanoscale systems is of great importance to tailor their properties. To this aim, we investigate the Young's modulus (YM) of defect-free and defective armchair bilayer silicene nanoribbons (SNRs), at room temperature, as a function of length and distance between layers. In this study, we perform molecular dynamics simulations using the environment-dependent interatomic potential to describe the interaction of the Si atoms. We show that the Young's modulus of pristine and defective bilayer SNRs increases with the ribbon length exhibiting size dependence. In general, YM of defective bilayer SNRs is smaller than the value obtained for the defect-free case, as a result of the number of missing bonds. In all cases, as the interlayer distance increases YM decreases and the buckling increases. It is shown that the YM exhibits a quadratic interlayer distance dependence. Finally, when only one layer has a mono-vacancy defect, the atomic stress distribution of the pristine layer is affected by the presence of the vacancy. This effect can be considered as a “ghost vacancy” since the deterioration of the pristine layer is similar to that shown by the defective one. These results show that YM of pristine and defective bilayer SNRs could be tailored for a given length and interlayer distance. It is also found that the fracture stress and the fracture strain of defective bilayers are both smaller than those obtained for the defect-free ones.