Focused ion beam induced synthesis of antimony nanowires for gas sensor applications

In this paper the formation of antimony (Sb) nanowires (NWs) by a focused Ga ion beam approach and their gas sensing capability is reported. The NWs with uniform diameters of only 25 nm and lengths up to several microns are synthesized at predefined positions at room temperature in an ion beam induced self-assembling process. Then individual Sb-NWs are deposited on insulating substrates and provided with gold electrodes. Subsequently sensing characteristics of individual Sb-NWs are investigated at room temperature for H(2)O, CO, H(2), He, O(2) and ethanol over a wide concentration range. The Sb-NWs exhibit selective sensing properties for ethanol and H(2)O with exceptional sensitivities of more than 17,000 and 60,000, respectively.