Abstract: A three-dimensional model of a silicon nano-plate with native oxide is proposed.The energy approach is used to obtain the Young’s moduli of the silicon nano-plate with and without the oxide layer.It is shown that the Young’s modulus of the nano-plate with surface oxide increases with the decrease of the nano-plate thickness,while that without surface oxide exhibits the opposite behavior.The reason is that the native oxide layer dominates the plate as it scales down to several nanometers.As the plate increases to 300nm,the Young’s moduli approach 123GPa.The Young’s modulus increases as the oxide thickness increases.When the thickness is 50nm,the Young’s moduli are in the range of 120 to 200GPa.

Key words: native oxide, nano-plate, Young’ modulus