Nanopatterning of mica surface under low energy ion beam sputtering

Journal Article · Sun Apr 01 04:00:00 EDT 2012 · Journal of Applied Physics

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3699045· OSTI ID:22036846

Metya, A; Ghose, D; Mollick, S A ^[1]; Majumdar, A ^[2]

---

1. Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics, Sector - I, Block - AF, Bidhan Nagar, Kolkata 700064 (India)
2. Universitaet Greifswald, Felix-Hausdorff-Str. 6, 17489 Greifswald (Germany)

Irradiation of crystalline muscovite mica samples by 500 eV Ar{sup +} ions at different incident angles can induce significant surface morphological variations. A periodic ripple pattern of nano-dimensions forms in the angle window 47 deg. -70 deg. . On the other hand, tilted conical protrusions develop on the surface at grazing incidence angles around 80 deg. . From the derivative of the topographic images the distribution of the side-facet slopes in the ion incidence plane are measured, which is found to be strongly related to the pattern morphology. Additionally, it has been shown that, for the ripple structures, the base angles can be tuned by changing the ion fluence. An asymmetric sawtooth profile of the ripples obtained at low fluence is transformed to a symmetrical triangular profile at high fluence. As the slopes are found to be small, the pattern formation is not provoked by the gradient-dependent erosion mechanism rather it is the general effect of the curvature-dependent sputtering phenomena.

• OSTI ID: 22036846
• Journal Information: Journal of Applied Physics, Journal Name: Journal of Applied Physics Journal Issue: 7 Vol. 111; ISSN JAPIAU; ISSN 0021-8979
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS
SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY
77 NANOSCIENCE AND NANOTECHNOLOGY
ALUMINIUM OXIDES
ARGON IONS
EV RANGE
INCIDENCE ANGLE
ION BEAMS
IRRADIATION
MORPHOLOGY
MUSCOVITE
NANOSTRUCTURES
PHASE TRANSFORMATIONS
POTASSIUM COMPOUNDS
RADIATION EFFECTS
SILICON COMPOUNDS
SOLIDS
SPUTTERING
SURFACES