Abstract
We have investigated by means of atomic force microscopy (AFM) single impacts of slow singly and multiply charged Ar ions on atomically clean insulator surfaces for LiF(100), SiO2(0001) α-quartz, muscovite mica and sapphire c-plane Al2O3(0001) crystals. The target samples have been continuously kept under UHV conditions by transferring them in a transportable UHV vault from the vacuum chamber for ion bombardment to the AFM instrument. Slow ion bombardment was accompanied by low-energy electron flooding to compensate for possible target surface charge-up. For Al2O3 clear ion-charge dependent surface defects in lateral and vertical directions give evidence for potential sputtering, which until now has only been demonstrated with thin polycrystalline insulator films.
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