Features of self-supporting tungsten nanowire deposited with high-energy electrons

The features of self-supporting tungsten nanowire fabricated by electron-beam-induced deposition using 200 keV electrons were investigated. The width of wire first decreases with the increase of the scan speed, then saturates at about 7–10 nm when the scan speed is higher than 10 nm/s. The wire has belt-shipped morphology elongated along the incident beam. The wire parallel to the substrate surface was fabricated at the beam scan speed of 4.0 nm/s, while those with upward and downward features were obtained by changing the scan speed. Nanobelt, nanorod, and nanotip with high aspect ration and small lateral size were fabricated with this method. Considering the forward scattering of electrons and the beam Gaussian profile, a model was developed for the growth of wire using high-energy electrons.