Investigation of ion induced bending mechanism for nanostructures

Ion induced bending is a promising controlled technique for manipulating nanoscale structures. However, the underlying mechanism of the process is not well understood. In this letter, we report a detailed study of the bending mechanism of Si nanowires (NWs) under Ga⁺ irradiation. The microstructural changes in theNWdue to ion beam irradiation are studied and molecular dynamics simulations are used to explore the ion-NWinteraction processes. The simulation results are compared with the microstructural studies of theNW. The investigations inform a generic understanding of the bending process in crystalline materials, which we suggest to be feasible as a versatile manipulation and integration technique in nanotechnology.