Atomistic simulation of irradiation effects in GaN nanowires

We have studied effects of ion irradiation in GaN nanowires using classical molecular dynamics simulations. Nanowires with diameters of 3 and 4 nm were irradiated with 100 Ar ions at energies of 100 eV to 10 keV corresponding to ion fluence of about 3×10143×1014 ions/cm2. The structure of the nanowires was analyzed along with sputtering yields and mechanical properties in the form of Young’s modulus. The results show a total sputtering yield of up to 8.3 sputtered atoms per ion and preferential sputtering of nitrogen with gallium to nitrogen ratio approximately 0.7. The Young’s modulus of the nanowires was observed to decrease as a function of the irradiation dose with the largest relative effect observed for ion energies of 1 and 10 keV.