Channeling of protons through BN nanotubes

Abstract

In this paper we study the angular and spatial distributions of protons channeled through boron-nitride (BN) nanotubes. The BN nanotubes have very similar structures like carbon nanotubes, but they are more thermally and chemically stable, and they also present good candidates for future channeling experiments. We present the angular and spatial distributions of MeV energy protons through the straight short (10,10) single-wall BN nanotubes (SWBNNs). They were generated by a computer simulation method Borka et al. (2011, 2012a,b). Also, the effect of focusing of channeled protons is observed. A possible application of the obtained results for characterization of BN nanotubes is discussed. Analysis of angular and spatial distributions could be used to provide detailed information on the projectile-target interaction potentials inside BN nanotubes. We also varied the proton incident angle and energy and demonstrate that we can get a significant rearrangement of the propagating protons within the BN nanotube. This investigation may be used for proton beam guiding, to locate atomic impurities in nanotubes as well as for creating nanosized proton beams to be used in materials science, biology and medicine. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.