**Ion-Irradiation-Induced Carbon Nanostructures in Optoelectronic Polymer Materials**

Taras S. Kavetskyy and Andrey L. Stepanov

Additional information is available at the end of the chapter

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/62669

#### **Abstract**

The recent results obtained on the ion-irradiation-induced carbon nanostructures in optoelectronic polymer materials exemplified by boron-ion-implanted polymethylme‐ thacrylate (B:PMMA) with an energy of 40 keV, ion doses from 6.25 × 1014 to 5.0 × 1016 ions/ cm2 , and current density <2 μA/cm2 are reviewed. The positron annihilation spectrosco‐ py (slow positron beam spectroscopy based on Doppler broadening of positron annihilation gamma rays as a function of incident positron energy and positron annihilation lifetime at a positron energy of 2.15 keV, and temperature-dependent positron annihilation lifetime spectroscopy), optical UV-visible spectroscopy, Raman spectrosco‐ py, electrical (current–voltage) measurements, and nanoindentation test are chosen as the main experimental tools for the investigation of low-energy ion-induced processes in B:PMMA. The formation of carbon nanostructures is confirmed for the samples irradiated with higher ion fluences (>1016 ions/cm2 ) and the experimental results of the comprehen‐ sive study are found to be in a good agreement with SRIM (stopping and range of ions in matter) simulation results.

**Keywords:** ion irradiation, optoelectronic materials, boron-ion-implanted polymethyl‐ methacrylate, carbon nanostructures
