Mechanical heterogeneity in nanoscale films of liquid silica.

Molecular dynamics simulations are carried out for slabs of silica liquid with thicknesses between 1 and 3 nm . A local analysis of the Born contribution to the elastic modulus, CB, shows that the elasticity is not uniform throughout the slabs--CB is identical to that of bulk silica in the slab interior, but CB is larger at the slab edges. The larger CB at the slab edges is due to a distinct atomic level structure characterized by larger density, larger concentration of more highly coordinated ions, and smaller silica rings.