Ions irradiation-induced defects study of copper nanowires

Irradiation induced damage study of Cu-NWs by 5 MeV H⁺ and C⁺ ions on the structural and morphological properties were examined in detail. The XRD spectra and HRTEM analyses of the formulated Cu-NWs give good crystallinity with the best orientation peak at (111) directions. The effect of H⁺ and C⁺ ion irradiation induce a decrease of the (111) peak intensity due to the structural defect formation, as observed by HRTEM. It also leads to the formation of Cu₂O phase and an increase in the Cu-NWs diameter, signifying NWs swelling. We observed an increase in the Cu₂O phase intensity at a high fluence of 5 MeV H⁺ irradiation. This phase decreased when the sample was irradiated with 5 MeV C⁺ ion. Since there was no shifting of the observed diffraction peak at (111) towards a lower angle, we can conclude that the NWs swelling is not due to the lattice parameter dilation but probably to the Cu₂O phase formation. Therefore we can conclude that H⁺ and C⁺ ion irradiation on Cu-NWs leads to the Cu/CuO composites formation, which may find applications chiefly in nano-devices.