Publikationsserver der RWTH Aachen University
Surface damage through grazing incidence ions investigated by scanning tunneling microscopy
Abstract
dc:descriptionSurface damage, caused by grazing incidence ions, is investigated with variable temperature scanning tunneling microscopy. The experiments are carried out on a Pt(111) crystal. The kinetic energy of noble gas ions is varied between 1-15 keV and the angle of incidence can be adjusted between 78.5° and 90° measured with respect to the surface normal. The damage patterns of single ion impacts, on flat terraces and at step edges of monoatomic height, are investigated at low surface temperatures. Ions hitting a flat terrace are usually specular reflected. The energy transfer from the ion to the crystal atoms is small and only little damage is produced. In contrast, at ascending step edges, which are illuminated by the ion beam, large angle scattering events occur. Sputtering, adatom and vacancy production is induced. However, a significant fraction of the ions, which hit step edges, enter the crystal and are guided in between two atomic layers parallel to the surface via small angle binary collisions. This steering process is denoted as subsurface channeling. The energy loss per length scale of the channeled particles is low, which results in long ion trajectories (up to 100nm). During the steering process, the ions produce surface damage. Depending on the ion species and the ion energy, adatom and vacancies or surface vacancy trenches of monoatomic width are observed. The surface damage can be used to track the path of the ion. This makes the whole trajectory of single ions with keV energy visible. The number of sputtered atoms per incident ion at ascending step edges, i.e. the step edge sputtering yield, is measured experimentally for different irradiation conditions. For 86°, the sputtering yield is determined from the fluence dependent retraction of pre-existing illuminated step edges. An alternative method for the step edge sputtering yield determination, is the analysis of the concentration of ascending steps and of the removed amount of material as a function of the ion fluence. This method is also applicable under less grazing angles of incidence. The investigations show that the sputtering yield at step edges depends on the azimuthal orientation of the impinging ions with respect to the surface. This change is attributed to the orientation dependence of subsurface channeling. The step edge sputtering yield at small adatom clusters is measured. In this case, the topmost layer (which forms the step edge) has a small lateral extension in ion beam direction. The evaluation shows that the step edge yield is, compared to step edges with a long upper terrace, decreased by a factor of three. The physical reason can be traced back to subsurface channeling. The ions are able to pass underneath the cluster and exit the crystal without a large scattering event. Little energy is transfered to the crystal which results in a low sputtering yield. The influence of adsorbates on sputtering and surface damage in grazing incidence ion erosion is studied for the case of oxygen and carbon monoxide. A partial surface coverage with adsorbates causes an enhancement of the erosion rate (the amount of removed material per ion fluence) by a factor of up to 40 compared to the clean case. The study is performed for 5 keV Ar ions for various grazing angles between 81° and 87° and temperatures ranging from 400 K to 550 K. Finally, coarsening of ion beam induced ripple patterns is analyzed. For surface temperatures of 450 K or below coarsening is athermal and kinetic, unrelated to diffusion and surface free energy. Similar to the situation of sand dunes, coarsening takes place through annihilation reactions of mobile defects in the pattern. The defect velocity derived on the basis of a simple model agrees quantitatively with the velocity of monoatomic steps illuminated by the ion beam.
Degree
thesis:*- Grantor dc:publisher
- Publikationsserver der RWTH Aachen University
- Year dc:date
- 2009
Author and committee
dc:creator, dc:contributor.*- Author dc:creator
-
- Redinger, Alex
- Contributors dc:contributor
-
- Michely, Thomas
Subjects
dc:subject × 11Rights
dc:rights- Statement dc:rights
-
- info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
- Language dc:language
- eng