Helical [110] gold nanowires make longer linear atomic chains.

Quantum mechanical molecular dynamics shows that gold nanowires formed along the [110] direction reconstruct upon stress to form helical nanowires. The mechanism for this formation is discussed. These helical nanowires evolve on stretching to form linear atomic chains. Because helical nanowires do not form symmetrical tips, a requirement to stop the growth of atomic chains, these nanowires produce longer atomic chains than other nanowires. These results are obtained resorting to the use of tight-binding molecular dynamics and ab initio electronic structure calculations.