Ion beam shaping of nanometals

We present a novel type of ion-beam-induced deformation of metal nano-objects. Under heavy-ion irradiation Au nanospheres in a silica matrix first elongate, and at higher dodes combine into nanowires that continue to grow under the ion beam. Such anisotropically shaped metal nanoparticles may have great potential in a wide range of fields. For example, nanorods exhibit a split plasmon resonance, with one of the bands shifting as far as the infrared. Arrays of such nanoparticles have great potential as nanophotonic guides in the (infra)red, an important telecom wavelength regime, but outside the range of plasmon resonances of spherical particles. Our samples consist of Au spheres (15 nm) in a single plane 150 nm below the surface of the silica matrix. At low dose (2x10^14 cm^-2) the nanospheres elongate into nanorods, with their long axis oriented in the beam direction (also verified by changing the ion incidence angle). At high doses, nanowire form, still parallel with the ion path. This intriguing effect (the wires must have formed from many primary particles) will be discussed in detail, along with the elongation mechanism, based on kinetic Monte Carlo computer experiments. We also observe a clear threshold in the electronic energy loss. This threshold can be explained, assuming that the ion track have to be continuous for elongation to occur.