Abstract
Zinc oxide (ZnO) nanowires (NWs) are exposed to energetic proton (H+), nitrogen (N+), phosphorus (P+), and argon (Ar+) ions to understand the radiation hardness and structural changes induced by these irradiations. High-resolution transmission electron microscopy is utilized to see the irradiation effects in NWs. Multiple doses and energies of radiation at different temperatures are used for different set of samples. The study reveals that wurtzite (crystalline)-structured ZnO NWs experience amorphization, degradation, and morphological changes after the irradiation. At room temperature, deterioration of the crystalline structure is observed under high fluence of H+, N+, and P+ ions. While for ZnO NWs, bombarded by Ar+ and P+ ions, nano-holes are produced. The ZnO NWs surfaces also show corrugated morphology full of nano-humps when irradiated by Ar+ ions at 400 °C. The corrugated surface could serve as tight-holding interface when interconnecting it with other NWs/nanotubes. These nano-humps may have the function of increasing the surface for surface-oriented sensing applications in the future.
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