Ni nanoparticles elaborated with an Ar ion polishing technique.
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Ni nanoparticles elaborated with an Ar ion polishing technique. Alejandro Torres-Castro, Enrique López-Cuéllar, Ubaldo Ortiz-Méndez, Juan Aguilar-Garib. FIME, Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León, A.P. 076 Suc. “F”, Cd. Universitaria C.P. 66450, San Nicolás de los Garza, N.L., México. Abstract: Ni nanoparticles where obtained from a Ni sample milled with Ar ions by using a Gatan precision ion polishing system, normally used for Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) sample preparation. Deposition of Ni nanoparticles was performed over two different surfaces: on a double sided carbon tape and, on a Cu grid covered with collodion film. A continuos film of Ni was characterized, over the carbon tape by SEM and EDAX techniques. The last surface was analysed by TEM. In both cases, a thin film composed of Ni nanoparticles, was founded and result obtained by TEM, show a nanoparticle diameter of about 4 nm. 1. Introduction In recent years, the elaboration of nanoparticles and nanofilms has become a field of great interest for many scientists due to their properties1. These materials have found many applications in different fields like medicine, biology and mechanics2. Therefore new methods for production are also being encoreged3. In this work, Ni nanoparticles were produced by ion polishing of Ni samples with a simple Gatan precision ion milling system, normally used for TEM sample preparation. The obtained nanoparticles of about 4 nm, seem to build a continuous film. These nanoparticles are similar to those that have been produced by Woodman4 with a combined focused ion beam deposition system and scanning probe microscope. Results suggest that this procedure would be adequate for building some nanocomposites or nanodevices if the deposit surface is controlled or masked. Operational Background. Purpose of the ion milling device is to polish the surface of a material in order to make it thin enough for being seen in a Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM). Normally a disk shape sample is placed over a turning pin and Ar ions from an ion gun are shot in such a way that material is removed from the surface. Produced particles are supposed nanometric. The particles are going all over the inner walls of the vacuum chamber in the ion milling device, although the Faraday Cups are specially attractive because they are electrically charged, then it would be possible to collect these particles almost from any place in the chamber. Indeed, the chamber is periodically cleaned in order to have and stable beam.
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Then, the idea was to collect the nanoparticles from places far from the Faraday Cups (Figure 1), which would be the worst places, because they are far from charges which in turn might be the responsible of actually having nanoparticles. Therefore, if nanoparticles are there, then it is possible to find them in any place in the chamber. Formation of the nanoparticles. When the sample (or Nickel target in this case) is hit by the Ar ion beam, small particles (few atoms) are removed from the target, and form cl
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