Ion-beam-directed self-organization of conducting nanowire arrays - art. no. 233408

Glancing-incidence ion-beam irradiation has been used both to ease kinetic constraints which otherwise restrict the establishment of long-range order and to impose external control on the orientation of nanowire arrays formed during stress-field-induced self-ordering of calcium atoms on a CaF2(111) surface. The arrays exhibit exceptional long-range order, with the long axi s of the wires oriented along the azimuthal direction of ion-beam incidence . Transport measurements reveal a highly anisotropic electrical conductivit y, whose maximum lies in the direction of the long axis of the 10.1-nm-peri od calcium wires.