Effect of surface stresses on the vibration and buckling of piezoelectric nanowires

In this letter, we analyze the influence of surface stresses on the vibration and buckling behavior of piezoelectric nanowires by using the Euler-Bernoulli beam model. The effect of surface stresses is considered by applying a curvature-dependent distributed transverse loading along the beam. It is found that the resonant frequency of piezoelectric nanowires can be tuned by adjusting the applied electric potential, and its elastic constant and residual surface stress could be determined experimentally by measuring the critical electric potential at the occurrence of axial buckling. This study is helpful for design of nanowire-based devices and for characterization of the mechanical properties of nanowires.