Focused ion beam induced synthesis of a porous antimony nanowire network

We present a focused ion beam-based approach for the synthesis of an nanofiber network.
The nanofibers, with a homogeneous distribution of diameters of about 25 nm and lengths up to several microns, are synthesized in a self-assembling process without any additional material source at room temperature. It is possible to recrystallize the as-grown amorphous nanofibers by moderate rapid thermal annealing at 473 K. These results have been verified by means of scanning electron microscopy, Auger electron spectroscopy, high-resolution transmission electron microscopy, selected area electron diffraction, and energy dispersive x-ray analysis. As this approach is not limited solely to the material discussed here, other substrates (e.g., GaSb and Ge ) and ion sources should extend this method to other materials, which offers a great potential for future nanoscale devices and applications.