Fractality of self-grown nanostructured tungsten by He plasma irradiation

Fractal property of the helium irradiated nanostructured tungsten was investigated from the scanning electron microscope (SEM) micrographs, gas adsorption isotherms, and transmission electron microscope (TEM) micrographs. From the SEM micrographs, fractal dimension and the parameter dmin, which characterizes the SEM texture image, were deduced, and the fractal dimension was compared with the one obtained from the gas adsorption isotherms. It was revealed that the fractal dimension obtained from the top view SEM micrographs was significantly lower than that from the adsorption isotherms. From the cross sectional SEM micrographs, two power law relations were identified in two different scales, and the fractal dimension from the adsorption was in between the two fractal dimensions. From the TEM micrographs, it was found that the porosity distribution also has fractal relation with height of the nanostructures when the nanostructures were sufficiently grown.