Ion engineering of embedded nanostructures: from spherical to facetted nanoparticles

Abstract

We show that the high-energy ion irradiation of embedded metallic spherical nanoparticles (NPs) is not limited to their transformation into prolate nanorods or nanowires. Depending on their pristine size, the three following morphologies can be obtained: (i) nanorods, (ii) facettedlike, and (iii) almost spherical nanostructures. Planar silica films containing nearly monodisperse gold NPs (8–100 nm) were irradiated with swift heavy ions (5 GeV Pb) at room temperature for fluences up to 5×1013 cm−2. The experimental results are accounted for by considering a liquid-solid transformation of the premelted NP surface driven by the in-plane stress within the ion-deformed host matrix. This work demonstrates the interest of using ion-engineering techniques to shape embedded nanostructures into nonconventional configurations.