Fabrication of Large Scale Molecular Junctions of Ag Nanowires By Mev Proton Beam Irradiation

Here, we demonstrate a MeV proton beam irradiation induced nanowelding technique to fabricate X-, Y-, T and II-shapes molecular junctions between Ag nanowires, both suspended and deposited on substrates. High-resolution transmission electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction and Scanning electron microscopy revealed that the nanoweldings are nearly perfect, with the same crystal orientation. We further discuss various experimental aspects of this method which may potentially be used for developing complicated networks of joined nanowires. The high quality of the welding is attributed to the nanoscale sample dimensions, oriented-attachment mechanisms and mechanically assisted fast surface-atom diffusion.