Engineering of nanostructured carbon materials with electron or ion beams

Abstract

Irradiating solids with energetic particles is usually thought to introduce disorder, normally an undesirable phenomenon. But recent experiments on electron or ion irradiation of various nanostructures demonstrate that it can have beneficial effects and that electron or ion beams may be used to tailor the structure and properties of nanosystems with high precision. Moreover, in many cases irradiation can lead to self-organization or self-assembly in nanostructures. In this review we survey recent advances in the rapidly evolving area of irradiation effects in nanostructured materials, with particular emphasis on carbon systems because of their technological importance and the unique ability of graphitic networks to reconstruct under irradiation. We dwell not only on the physics behind irradiation of nanostructures but also on the technical applicability of irradiation for nanoengineering of carbon and other systems.

Simulation of high-energy ion collisions with graphene fragments

“…However, the probability of this event is small. The displacement of a carbon nucleus in a graphitic structure requires a transfer of at least 20 eV of energy 15 . A simple estimate based on a classical collision of two Coulomb particles (Rutherford scattering) suggests that for a 1 MeV proton to transfer 20 eV to a carbon nucleus requires an impact parameter of the order of b≈0.005Å.…”

“…Focused ion beams is one of the most promising approaches for etching and patterning graphene [3][4][5][6][7] . While the interaction of particle radiation and solids has long been studied experimentally and theoretically [8][9][10][11][12][13][14] , their effect on single-layer materials is expected to be very different from that of bulk materials 15 . The study of radiation is also valuable for graphene-based electronics and sensors to be used in outer space and low earth orbit, where a significant exposure to energetic ions may occur.…”

Structure of graphene and its disorders: a review

“…Irradiation usually introduces disorders and leads to the self-organization or self-assembly in nanostructured carbon materials [335]. Typically, irradiating graphene with energetic particles, such as ions [326,336–338] or electrons [328,339], can effectively create point defects (mostly vacancies), due to the ballistic ejection of carbon atoms.…”

Detecting swift heavy ion irradiation effects with graphene

“…Having the ability to reconstruct its perfect hexagonal carbon lattice into pentagons and heptagons near defect sites [8] and the fact that defects can be exploited to manipulate its physical properties, graphene proofs to be an interesting material for ion irradiation experiments [9]. In previous studies graphene has been irradiated with either low energy ions (LEI) or light ions and with high ion fluences of (from 10 11 ions/cm 2 up to 10 18 ions/cm 2 ) normal to the surface.…”