Contact Joining Study of Copper and Nickel Nanowires

Abstract

Metal nanowires (MNWs) are proven to be excellent innovative conducting materials for next generation of nanodevices either in form of transparent electrodes for solar cells or for interconnecting conducting nanowires to incorporate multiple nanodevices. To exploit exceptional properties of MNWs networks in future nanodevices, effective joining between various types of MNWs is critical. This study is based on joining of copper nanowires (Cu-NWs) and nickel nanowires (Ni-NWs) through argon (Ar+) ions beam irradiation. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), x-ray diffraction (XRD) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) results exposed that Ag-NWs are effectively connected to each other on intersecting positions and crystal structure also remained un-damaged. In addition, the results exhibit that Ar+ ions beam irradiation induced sputtering of atoms from NWs lattices lead to produce point defects and accumulation of these point defects on crossing sharp angle contact areas, eventually lead to connect these NWs. A basic perception is the exploitation of Ar+ ions beam irradiation induced nanowelding technique for construction of complex and random networks of well-connected multiple MNWs for application in future nanodevices or optoelectronic devices.