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Transition from smoothing to roughening of ion-eroded GaSb surfaces

Journal Article · · Applied Physics Letters
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3136765· OSTI ID:21294078
; ;  [1];  [2]; ;  [3];  [4];  [5]
  1. Institute of Ion Beam Physics and Materials Research, Forschungszentrum Dresden-Rossendorf, P.O. Box 510119, 01314 Dresden (Germany)
  2. Festkoerperphysik, Universitaet Siegen, 57068 Siegen (Germany)
  3. European Synchrotron Radiation Facility, F-38043 Grenoble Cedex (France)
  4. Centre de Spectrometrie Nucleaire et de Spectrometrie de Masse, CNRS/IN2P3, Univ. Paris-Sud, UMR 8609, F-91405 Orsay (France)
  5. Instituto de Ciencia de Materiales de Madrid, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas, E-28049 Madrid (Spain)
During ion sputtering of GaSb(100) surfaces a transient behavior from initial smoothing to roughening accompanied by self-organized pattern formation has been observed using in situ x-ray reflectivity and grazing incidence small angle scattering. The induced patterns show hexagonally ordered nanodot arrays with a spatial periodicity of 30 nm. The correlation length of the pattern increases with ion fluence. In the framework of the Bradley-Harper model [R. M. Bradley and J. M. E. Harper, J. Vac. Sci. Technol. A 6, 2390 (1988)], where the dot pattern formation results from an interplay of surface roughening due to sputtering and surface smoothing due to diffusion, the initial smoothing behavior is explained by the same surface diffusion processes as the pattern formation.
OSTI ID:
21294078
Journal Information:
Applied Physics Letters, Journal Name: Applied Physics Letters Journal Issue: 19 Vol. 94; ISSN APPLAB; ISSN 0003-6951
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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