The ideal strength of gold under uniaxial stress: an ab initio study

We employ an ab initio calculation based on density functional theory to investigate the ideal strength of face-centered cubic crystal Au under uniaxial stress along the [100] direction. We show that the stability of the perfect Au crystal under tensile stress is determined by the tetragonal shear stiffness modulus, with an ideal tensile strength of 4.2 GPa and the corresponding Lagrangian tensile strain of ∼ 0.07. The potential bifurcation from the primary uniaxial loading path is along the tetragonal shear. Under compressive stress, there is a stress-free body-centered cubic phase, which is unstable and ready to transform to a stress-free body-centered tetragonal phase with lower internal energy. The stable region is from - 1.6 to 4.2 GPa in the ideal strength, or from - 0.07 to 0.07 in the Lagrangian strain.