In situ manipulation of electron beam irradiation-activated nanoscale tips formation from amorphous and metal modified silica nanowires
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13204_2025_3110_ReferencePDF.pdf
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Author(s)
Khan, Imran
Żak, Andrzej M.
Gilani, S. M. S.
Lan, Jinshen
Huang, Shengli
Date Issued
July 19, 2025
Journal
Applied Nanoscience
Publisher
Springer International Publishing
Citation
Khan, I., Żak, A.M., Gilani, S.M.S. et al. In situ manipulation of electron beam irradiation-activated nanoscale tips formation from amorphous and metal modified silica nanowires. Appl Nanosci 15, 33 (2025).
Version
Author's final manuscript
Abstract
Escalating use of amorphous silica nanowires (a-SiOx NWs) in potential applications demonstrates the demand of novel processing techniques at nanoscale. Due to the imperfect structure and porous morphology, a-SiOx NWs can be metal-modified which allows for electrical conduction under visible light. Unfortunately, their brittle nature at room temperature and nanometric-size make it demanding to precisely process and change shape from an elongated fiber to a sharply pointed tip. Here energetic electron beam (e-beam) irradiation of a-SiOx and a-SiOx NWs with gold-nanoparticles (Au-NPs) (Au–SiOx NWs) is performed to develop diverse shaped nanoscale tips by optimizing e-beam parameters. Sharp amorphous tips (6 and 11 nm), extremely sharp Au-tips (4 and 6 nm), and relatively thick (16 and 18 nm) amorphous tips with average lengths of 50, 30, and 20 nm are formed at the centers of a-SiOx and Au–SiOx NWs when a tightly focused e-beam with beam spot size (~ 42 nm) equal to the diameters of NWs is centered at their axes and edge positions respectively. Au-tips thickening (4 or 6 to 22 nm) with reduction (20–16 nm) in length is observed when a uniform e-beam with beam spot size ~ 200 nm is employed. In-situ electron microscopy evaluation demonstrates that during e-beam processing, evaporation, diffusion, plastic flow, and dewetting are driven by positive curvature and e-beam activation effect. The combination of beam spot size and position can be used to tailor atomically sharp tips for wide applications, such as interconnects, biochemical sensing, scanning near-field optical microscopes, blue light emitters, and manipulations.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Materials Science and Engineering
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1007/s13204-025-03110-0
