Published September 15, 2010 | Version v1
Journal article

Radiation induced modification in nanoscale hardness of ZnO cone structures

  • 1. Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, Hauz Khas, New Delhi 110016 (India)
  • 2. Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 110 8th St., Troy, New York 12180 (United States)
  • 3. Department of Mechanical, Aerospace and Nuclear Engineering, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 110 8th St., Troy, New York 12180 (United States)
  • 4. UGC-DAE, Consortium for Scientific Research, University Campus, Khandwa Road, Indore 452017 (India)
  • 5. Inter-University Accelerator Centre, Aruna Asaf Ali Marg, Post Box 10502, New Delhi 110067 (India)

Description

In this paper, the effect of ion irradiation on nanoscale hardness of ZnO microcones is reported. The hardness of ZnO cones determined by nanoindentation using atomic force microscope initially increases from 4.7±1.4 to 9.5±1.6 GPa after irradiation with 1.2 MeV Ar+8 ions at an ion fluence of 1015 ions cm-2 and then decreases with increasing ion fluence. This change in mechanical hardness has been correlated with the residual stress of the sample revealed by Raman peak shift in the E2(H) mode. These results show that the generally reported radiation-hard nature of ZnO depends critically on irradiation conditions, especially the irradiation temperature.

Additional details

Identifiers

Publishing Information

Journal Title
Journal of Applied Physics
Journal Volume
108
Journal Issue
6
Journal Page Range
p. 063519-063519.6
ISSN
0021-8979
CODEN
JAPIAU

Optional Information

Notes
(c) 2010 American Institute of Physics