title: Fabrication of nanoscale Ga balls via a Coulomb explosion of microscale silica-covered Ga balls by TEM electron-beam irradiation.
abstract: Nanoscale Ga particles down to 5 nm were fabricated by an explosion via an in situ electron-beam irradiation on microscale silica-covered Ga balls in a transmission electron microscope. The explosion is confirmed to be a Coulomb explosion because it occurs on the surface rather than in the whole body of the insulating silica-covered Ga micro-balls, and on the pure Ga nano-balls on the edge of carbon film. The ejected particles in the explosion increase their sizes with increasing irradiation time until the stop of the explosion, but decrease their sizes with increasing distance from the original ball. The Coulomb explosion suggests a novel method to fabricate nanoscale metal particles with low melting point.
authors.affiliation: Center for Nanoscale Characterization and Devices (CNCD), Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics (WNLO)-School of Physics, Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST), Luoyu Road 1037, Wuhan 430074, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Ying
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Center for Nanoscale Characterization and Devices (CNCD), Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics (WNLO)-School of Physics, Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST), Luoyu Road 1037, Wuhan 430074, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Yanli
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: Center for Nanoscale Characterization and Devices (CNCD), Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics (WNLO)-School of Physics, Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST), Luoyu Road 1037, Wuhan 430074, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Nishuang
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Center for Nanoscale Characterization and Devices (CNCD), Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics (WNLO)-School of Physics, Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST), Luoyu Road 1037, Wuhan 430074, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Su
authors.affiliation: Center for Nanoscale Characterization and Devices (CNCD), Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics (WNLO)-School of Physics, Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST), Luoyu Road 1037, Wuhan 430074, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Luying
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Center for Nanoscale Characterization and Devices (CNCD), Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics (WNLO)-School of Physics, Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST), Luoyu Road 1037, Wuhan 430074, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Yihua
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Gao