Gold Nanostructures Created by Highly Charged Ions

Published

June 28, 2007

Author(s)

Joshua M. Pomeroy, Holger Grube, A C. Perrella, John D. Gillaspy

Abstract

Nanometer sized structures produced by individual highly charged ion (HCI)impacts are reported for the first time on a high conductivity surface andexamined by scanning tunnelling microscopy (STM). Highly charged ions, e.g.,Bi$^{81+}$, represent an exotic form of terrestrial matter with neutralizationenergies that can exceed 375 keV per ion and velocities in excess of 1000 km/sfrom only moderate electrostatic potentials (15 kV). In the experimentpresented here, a single crystal Au(111) sample was irradiated with Xe$^{25+}$and Xe$^{44+}$, which are vastly different in their neutralization energies,have moderate velocities (slow compared to Bohr velocity) to maximize thelikelihood of observing features, but similar nuclear stopping powers. STManalysis indicates that the neutralization energy is less significant in formingfeatures on gold than reported in the low free electron density systems. Theseresults support the hypothesis that gold's high free electron density enables efficient dissipation of the HCI's potential energy.

Citation

Physical Review B (Condensed Matter and Materials Physics)

Volume

75

Issue

24

Pub Type

Journals

Keywords

gold, highly charged ions, nano-feature, scanning tunneling microscopy

Citation

Pomeroy, J. , Grube, H. , Perrella, A. and Gillaspy, J. (2007), Gold Nanostructures Created by Highly Charged Ions, Physical Review B (Condensed Matter and Materials Physics) (Accessed April 23, 2024)