Rapid Coarsening of Ion Beam Ripple Patterns by Defect Annihilation

Journal Article · Fri Apr 10 00:00:00 EDT 2009 · Physical Review Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PHYSREVLETT.102.146103· OSTI ID:21180366

Hansen, Henri; Messlinger, Sebastian; Stoian, Georgiana ^[1]; Redinger, Alex ^[1]; Krug, Joachim ^[2]; Michely, Thomas ^[3]

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1. I. Physikalisches Institut, RWTH Aachen, 52056 Aachen (Germany)
2. Institut fuer Theoretische Physik, Universitaet zu Koeln, 50937 Koeln, Zuelpicher Strasse 77 (Germany)
3. II. Physikalisches Institut, Universitaet zu Koeln, 50937 Koeln, Zuelpicher Strasse 77 (Germany)

Ripple patterns formed on Pt(111) through grazing incidence ion beam erosion coarsen rapidly. At and below 450 K coarsening of the patterns is athermal and kinetic, unrelated to diffusion and surface free energy. Similar to the situation for 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 monatomic steps illuminated by the ion beam.

• OSTI ID: 21180366
• Journal Information: Physical Review Letters, Vol. 102, Issue 14; Other Information: DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.102.146103; (c) 2009 The American Physical Society; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0031-9007
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
ANNIHILATION
DIFFUSION
EROSION
FREE ENERGY
ION BEAMS
VELOCITY