Enhanced sputtering and incorporation of Mn in implanted GaAs and ZnO nanowires

TL;DR

This study combines simulations and experiments to analyze how Mn ion implantation affects sputter yield and dopant incorporation in GaAs and ZnO nanowires, revealing enhanced sputtering and non-linear dopant uptake.

Contribution

It provides new insights into the sputtering behavior and dopant incorporation mechanisms in nanowires under ion irradiation, supported by both experimental data and simulations.

Findings

Enhanced sputter yield in nanowires compared to bulk materials

Maximum sputter yield occurs when ion range matches nanowire diameter

Dopant incorporation increases non-linearly with ion fluency

Abstract

We simulated and experimentally investigated the sputter yield of ZnO and GaAs nanowires, which were implanted with energetic Mn ions at room temperature. The resulting thinning of the nanowires and the dopant concentration with increasing Mn ion fluency were measured by accurate scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and nano-X-Ray Fluorescence (nanoXRF) quantification, respectively. We observed a clear enhanced sputter yield for the irradiated nanowires compared to bulk, which is also corroborated by iradina simulations. These show a maximum if the ion range matches the nanowire diameter. As a consequence of the erosion thinning of the nanowire, the incorporation of the Mn dopants is also enhanced and increases non-linearly with increasing ion fluency.