UC Irvine

Micro/nano systems and nanofabrication have been the subject of intensive research investment over the past decades. Among all aspects one can consider in miniaturizing a system, the mechanical property is the most important aspect in order to design a micro/nano system. In this study, the elastic properties of suspended carbon nanowires with diameters smaller than 500 nm are investigated by using laser Doppler vibrometry. The carbon fibers are manually fabricated using a carbon precursor polymer followed by pyrolysis process. It is found that the Young’s modulus became inversely proportional to the diameter of the wires. So, the thinner the wire the greater Young’s modulus that the wire has.