Title: Structural and chemical changes during the growth of Fe nanoparticles in SiO2 under low energy ion implantation
Authors: Jérôme Leveneur; John Kennedy; G.V.M. Williams; Masato Sasase; James B. Metson; Andreas Markwitz
Addresses: National Isotope Centre, GNS Science, 30 Gracefield Road, Lower Hutt, New Zealand; Department of Chemistry, The University of Auckland, Private Bag 92019, Auckland, New Zealand ' National Isotope Centre, GNS Science, 30 Gracefield Road, Lower Hutt, New Zealand; The MacDiarmid Institute for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology, SPCS, Victoria University, P.O. Box 600, Wellington, New Zealand ' The MacDiarmid Institute for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology, SPCS, Victoria University, P.O. Box 600, Wellington, New Zealand ' The Wakasa-wan Energy Research Center, 64-52-1, Nagatani, Tsuruga Fukui, 914-0192, Japan ' Department of Chemistry, The University of Auckland, Private Bag 92019, Auckland, New Zealand; The MacDiarmid Institute for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology, SPCS, Victoria University, P.O. Box 600, Wellington, New Zealand ' National Isotope Centre, GNS Science, 30 Gracefield Road, Lower Hutt, New Zealand; The MacDiarmid Institute for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology, SPCS, Victoria University, P.O. Box 600, Wellington, New Zealand
Abstract: Low energy (15 keV) Fe implantation into SiO2 (400 nm) on Si initially leads to the formation of very small Fe nanoparticles. The Fe nanoparticles grow in size and remain crystalline as the fluence is increased. At the same time there is Si and oxygen sputtering that reduces the thickness of the SiO2 layer. It is this sputtering that leads to Fe nanoparticles that protrude from the surface for high Fe fluences of at least 5 × 1016 at.cm−2. The surface nanoparticles develop an oxide layer when exposed to air. Fe silicides (probably FeSi2) also occur for these high fluences. Their formation is likely to occur because sputtering leads to a Si excess near the surface.
Keywords: iron nanoparticles; ion implantation; XANES; XPS; RBS; nanotechnology; structural changes; chemical changes; Fe nanoparticles; SiO2; silicon dioxide; silica; sputtering.
International Journal of Nanotechnology, 2014 Vol.11 No.5/6/7/8, pp.466 - 476
Published online: 15 Dec 2014 *
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