Present work reports the elongation of spherical Ni nanoparticles (NPs) parallel to each other, due to bombardment with 120 MeV Au+9 ions at a fluence of 5 × 1013 ions/cm2. The Ni NPs embedded in silica matrix have been prepared by atom beam sputtering technique and subsequent annealing. The elongation of Ni NPs due to interaction with Au+9 ions as investigated by cross-sectional transmission e...

– Multilayers like those used in giant magnetoresistive spin-valves can be improved if better layer thickness uniformity, lower contamination levels, reduced interfacial roughness and less interlayer mixing can be achieved. Atomistic simulations have revealed that optimization of the energy of the depositing atoms and the application of very low energy inert gas ion assistance reduce both inter...

The temporal evolution of ripple pattern on Ge, Si, Al 2 O 3, and SiO 2 by low-energy ion beam erosion with Xe (+) ions is studied. The experiments focus on the ripple dynamics in a fluence range from 1.1 × 10(17) cm(-2) to 1.3 × 10(19) cm(-2) at ion incidence angles of 65° and 75° and ion energies of 600 and 1,200 eV. At low fluences a short-wavelength ripple structure emerges on the surface t...

Focused ion beam (FIB) technology is widely used to fabricate nanopores in solid-state membranes. These nanopores have desirable thermomechanical properties for applications such as high-throughput DNA sequencing. Using large scale molecular dynamics simulations of the FIB nanopore formation process, we show that there is a threshold ion delivery rate above which the mechanism underlying nanopo...

Analytical equations historically used to predict the onset of electron backstreaming in ion thrusters tend to underestimate significantly the accel grid voltage required to block electron backflow from the beam plasma because they neglect detailed beamlet focusing and space charge effects inside the grid apertures. We present corrected analytical equations that provide a good estimate of the m...