SEM investigations of the surface and cross-section features of ZnO NWs under FIB treatment

We investigated vapour phase epitaxy (VPE)-grown ZnO nano-wires (NWs) on a Si substrate by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). SEM investigations show that there are single NWs and ensembles of NWs, among which we found straight and bend, perfect and non-perfect NWs, as well as NWs with clean surfaces and surfaces with the dark spots and features. After focused ion beam (FIB) polishing we found that every NW has a clean homogeneous surface, which allow us to conclude that all those dark spots and surface features of the NWs really are just surface features. The FIB milling gives information of the deeper interior of the NWs.