Tuning the Fabrication of Nanostructures by Low-Energy Highly Charged Ions.
Slow highly charged ions have been utilized recently for the creation of monotype surface nanostructures (craters, calderas, or hillocks) in different materials. In the present study, we report on the ability of slow highly charged xenon ions (^{129}Xe^{Q+}) to form three different types of nanostructures on the LiF(100) surface. By increasing the charge state from Q=15 to Q=36, the shape of the impact induced nanostructures changes from craters to hillocks crossing an intermediate stage of caldera structures. A dimensional analysis of the nanostructures reveals an increase of the height up to 1.5 nm as a function of the potential energy of the incident ions. Based on the evolution of both the geometry and size of the created nanostructures, defect-mediated desorption and the development of a thermal spike are utilized as creation mechanisms of the nanostructures at low and high charge states, respectively.
Physics Department, King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals, Dhahran 31261, Saudi Arabia.
Ayman S
AS
El-Said
Institute of Ion Beam Physics and Materials Research, Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR), 01328 Dresden, Germany.|Institute of Applied Physics, Vienna University of Technology, 1040 Vienna, Austria.
Richard A
RA
Wilhelm
Institute of Ion Beam Physics and Materials Research, Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR), 01328 Dresden, Germany.
Rene
R
Heller
National Research Centre "Kurchatov Institute," Kurchatov Square 1, 123182 Moscow, Russia.
Michael
M
Sorokin
Institute of Ion Beam Physics and Materials Research, Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR), 01328 Dresden, Germany.
Stefan
S
Facsko
Institute of Applied Physics, Vienna University of Technology, 1040 Vienna, Austria.
Friedrich
F
Aumayr