Carbon ion beam-induced variation in orientation of crystal planes of polycrystalline Zn nanowires

In the present work, polycrystalline Zn nanowires are synthesised within polymeric templates by the electrochemical deposition technique. Free-standing Zn nanowires with diameters 100, 200, 400 nm were synthesised on copper substrate acting as cathode, using this technique. The synthesised nanowires were irradiated with 40 MeV C⁴⁺ ion beam for various fluencies at Inter University Accelerator Centre, New Delhi, India. The effect of carbon ion beam on the grain size and preferred orientation of crystal planes of Zn nanowires were studied. The Rigaku X-ray diffractometer was used for X-ray diffraction (XRD) spectra of pristine and irradiated Zn nanowires. Post irradiation XRD analysis showed variation in the intensity of peaks, indicating the change in the orientation of crystal planes of the material. The preferred orientation of the crystal lattice planes in the polycrystalline material was found using texture analysis. To quantitatively investigate the degree of preferred orientations, the texture coefficients (TC) were calculated. The variation of TC was used to demonstrate the effect of irradiation on preferred orientation.