Fabrication of nanopores in a graphene sheet with heavy ions: A molecular dynamics study

Molecular dynamics simulations were performed to study the formation process of nanopores in a suspended graphene sheet irradiated by using energetic ions though a mask. By controlling the ion parameters including mass, energy, and incident angle, different kinds of topography were observed in the graphene sheet. Net-like defective structures with carbon atom chains can be formed at low ion fluences, which provide the possibility to functionalize the irradiated sample with subsequent chemical methods; finally a perfect nanopore with smooth edge appears when the ion fluence is high enough. We found that the dependence of ion damage efficiency on ion fluence, energy, and incident angle are different from that predicted by the semi-empirical model based on the binary-collision approximation, which results from the special structure of graphene. Our results demonstrate that it is feasible to fabricate controlled nanopores/nanostructures in graphene via heavy ion irradiation.