Surface Modification and Damage of MeV-Energy Heavy Ion Irradiation on Gold Nanowires

Abstract

Gold nanowires with diameters ranging from 20 to 90 nm were fabricated by the electrochemical deposition technique in etched ion track polycarbonate templates and were then irradiated by Xe and Kr ions with the energy in MeV range. The surface modification of nanowires was studied by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) characterizations. Different craters with and without protrusion on the gold nanowires were analyzed, and the two corresponding formation mechanisms, i.e., plastic flow and micro-explosion, were investigated. In addition, the sputtered gold nanoparticles caused by ion irradiation were studied and it was confirmed that the surface damage produced in gold nanowires was increased as the diameter of the nanowires decreased. It was also found that heavy ion irradiation can also create stacking fault tetrahedrons (SFTs) in gold nanowires and three different SFTs were confirmed in irradiated nanowires. A statistical analysis of the size distribution of SFTs in gold nanowires proved that the average size distribution of SFT was positively related to the nuclear stopping power of incident ions, i.e., the higher nuclear stopping power of incident ions could generate SFT with a larger average size in gold nanowires.

Electronic heat transport versus atomic heating in irradiated short metallic nanowires

“…to the surface, the radiation dose being very high at 1 dpa (displacement per atom) [1] in their experiment. Moreover, Cheng et al [56] proposed that the surface features they observe in Au NWs, including craters, are due to plastic flow or to microexplosions. In our simulations, roughening occurs due to sputtering and melt flow, making it different from these previous studies.…”

“…As for nanofoams, most experiments and MD simulations [41,42,52,53] of NW irradiation deal with the nuclear stopping regime, without energy dissipation to electrons. Defects and surface modification have been observed for MeV irradiation of Ag NWs [54,55], Au NWs [56], Cu NWs [57], and Ni and Co NWs [58].…”

MeV irradiation of tungsten nanowires: structural modifications

“…Surface changes and defects have been observed for Ag [18,19], Au [20], Cu [21], Ni and Co [22] nanowires underMeV irradiation. However, most of the experiments of irradiation of nanowires and nanofoams deal with the elastic regime [23,24], without energy dissipation to electrons, being a few in the regime where electronic stopping is larger [25,26].…”

Recent progresses on ion beam irradiation induced structure and performance modulation of two-dimensional materials

“…[27][28][29][30] Ion beam, as the most widely adopted particle beam, has been extensively employed for engineering the properties of different nanomaterials. [31][32][33][34][35] The ion beam irradiation technique was originally applied for modifying the performance of three-dimensional (3D) bulk materials, such as ion implantation of semiconductors. 36,37 Nowadays, great advances have been achieved in the performance modulation of 2D materials using ion irradiation, owing to its high controllability, accuracy, reproducibility, and efficiency.…”