Microscopy tool used to assess nano-damage
6 Jan 2014
A team of researchers from the University of Huddersfield have discovered how computer components can become damaged when subjected to ion beams.
The university’s Electron Microscopy and Materials Analysis Research Group (EMMA) plays host to an advanced facility named MIAMI (Microscope and Ion Accelerators for Materials Investigation).
“We were hoping to generate bubbles. We actually found that we were eroding the nanowires
Dr Graeme Greaves
Led by Prof Stephen Donnelly, researchers used MIAMI to “bombard” various materials with ion beams and examine the effects at the nanoscale.
During a recent experiment conducted by the team, a number of gold nanorods - a thousand times smaller than a human hair - were irradiated with xenon atoms.
Research Fellow Dr Graeme Greaves said: “We were hoping to generate bubbles. We actually found that we were eroding the nanowires. And the rate of erosion - measured in terms of “sputtering yield”, or how many atoms come out of matter for each incoming atom - was far in advance of expectations.”
Greaves explained that the spluttering yield of a normal piece of gold should be of the order of 50 atoms per ion.
“In the case of rods we expected it to be greater, because the geometry is much reduced. We worked out that it should be higher by a factor of four, or something of that order. But we actually found that the greatest value measured was a sputtering yield of a thousand - a factor of 20,” Greaves said.
The research team has suggested the findings offer considerable implications, especially within the field of medicine.
“Gold nanoparticles can be used for tumour detection, the optimisation of the bio-distribution of drugs to diseased organs and a radiotherapy dose enhancer,” Greaves stated.
He warned that because ion beams are used to change the properties of nanoparticles, researchers must be wary of the amount of damage that can be done to various computer components.
