Effect of ion beam assisted deposition on the growth of indium tin oxide (ITO) nanowires

We developed a method to control the alignment and density of indium tin oxide (ITO) nanowires by using ion beam assisted deposition (IBAD). During electron beam evaporation, IBAD changed the randomly oriented branch type nanowires to aligned nanowires without branches. This is due to the energetic ion beams which play a role in nucleating tin containing indium nanodots at the initial stage of growth. The improved alignment of the ITO nanowires reduced the sensing time for ethanol gas.