Self-organized nanopatterning of silicon surfaces by ion beam sputtering

Ion damage overrides structural disorder in silicon surface nanopatterning by low-energy ion beam sputtering

“…This contrasts with previous results obtained at medium energies [21], questioning the straightforward relation between both energy conditions that is frequently hypothesized in the literature [5].…”

“…ripple formation on sand dunes [6], as already noted in the first historic reports on IBS surface nanorippling [7]. However, although the technique has been already known for half a century, its underlying mechanisms are still under debate [5]. Hence, from a basic point of view, IBS-induced structures still pose challenging questions on the dynamics of surface patterns at the nanoscale, including issues on pattern order [8], coarsening [9], and kinetic roughening [10].…”

“…Generally, semiconductors become amorphous under ion bombardment [19] but, although 48003-p1 IBS amorphization of bulk Si is comparatively well understood [20], the form in which the atomic disorder of the amorphous layer may influence the IBS-induced surface morphology at nanometric scales remains largely unknown. Non-trivial effects in the stress distribution or in the density might be expected, particularly in view of the low ion fluxes employed in IBS surface nanopatterning, roughly 1 ion nm −2 s −1 or lower [5]. For medium ion energies ( 15 keV), oblique Ar + irradiation experiments [21] show attenuated ripple formation for targets in which an initial surface amorphous layer is thicker than the projected ion range.…”

Stability and symmetry of ion-induced surface patterning

“…Additional factors can also be introduced to account for surface stresses and point defect generation , as well as higherorder non-linearities and noise (Makeev et al 2002). Mass redistribution resulting from the momentum transfer by incident atoms has also been shown to be an influential factor in the dynamics of pattern formation (Muñoz-García et al 2014). The presented study, however, is constrained to the primary known mechanisms for modeling ion sputtering, including curvature-induced erosion, temperature-induced surface diffusion, and the effect of nonlinearities and linear damping.…”

Structural transition of carbon nanoparticles caused by energetic collisions

“…[1][2][3][4] The kind of change that takes place in these nanoparticles when they collide with a solid surface energetically has been considered in different cases, as specified by the average kinetic energy per atom in the nanoparticles. [1][2][3][4] The average kinetic energies (E k ) are comparable with the average atomistic binding energies because the inner bonding is the critical difference between a nanoparticle and a loosely-packed group of the same atoms. 5,6 The nanoparticles land softly with no obvious structural change when their kinetic energy is much lower than the binding energies (E k < 0.1 eV/atom).…”