ECR Plasma assisted deposition of zinc nanowires

Deposits of one-dimensional nanostructures of zinc with diameters of 90-120 nm have been obtained by means of sputtering in an Electron Cyclotron Resonance (ECR) plasma reactor. The sputtering has been made effective by using a negatively biased cylindrical target in a hollow cathode geometry. The nanocrystalline films deposited on the glass substrate were studied with scanning tunneling microscopy/spectroscopy and was found to consist of nanowires having metallic nature. The crystalline nature of these metallic nanowires was studied with x-ray diffraction analysis.