The effect of fast cluster irradiation on the formation of fibrous structures is investigated for single crystal GaSb surfaces irradiated by Cun+ ions (n = 1–3) with an energy of 0.4 MeV/atom at ion fluences up to 5 × 1015 cm−2. We study the cluster size dependence on the growth of fibrous network structures. With increasing cluster size, the shape of the fiber changed from rod-like to spherical. To quantitatively evaluate this cluster effect, a fiber diameter d in rod or spherical portion is examined as a function of ion fluence Φ and cluster size n. We find that the fiber diameter nonlinearly increases and follows the relation d∝nα×Φ, with α≈2. This evidently implies that the amount of defects generated by n-sized cluster bombardments varies as n2 for n≤3. Cluster ion irradiation enhances the defect generation owing to the overlap between cascades of individual cluster constituents and is therefore effective for the growth of nanofibers.
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