title: Controlling the morphology of Ag nanoclusters by ion implantation to different doses and subsequent annealing.
abstract: Ag ions were implanted at 200 keV into silica with nominal doses ranging from 5x10(16) to 2x10(17) ions/cm2. We find that nanovoid-containing Ag nanoclusters form in the implanted samples with doses higher than 1x10(17) ions/cm2. When the dose is increased to 2x10(17) ions/cm2, the nanovoids gradually shrink and form a sandwiched nanocluster-nanovoid-nanocluster structure. The evolution of sandwiched nanoclusters during annealing was observed by in situ transmission electron microscopy experiments. Potential mechanisms for the formation and evolution of the irradiation-induced nanovoids and the sandwiched structure nanoclusters with increasing doses are discussed. The structural optimization of the sandwiched structure nanoclusters was performed by molecular mechanics calculations.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Acoustic and Photonic Materials and Devices of Ministry of Education, Wuhan University, Wuhan, China.
authors.forename: Feng
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Ren
authors.forename: Changzhong
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.forename: Chang
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Jianbo
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Takeo
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Oku