Application of abnormally high sputtering rate of PbTe(Te) single crystals during inductively coupled argon plasma treatment for fabrication of nanostructures

Abstract

This paper reports the investigations of the sputtering process of (111) oriented single crystals of PbTe with excess tellurium (4 at.%) in RF high-density low-pressure inductively coupled argon plasma. An increase of 1.6 times the sputtering rate of lead telluride in comparison with the classical case of single-crystal state with a slight deviation from stoichiometry is shown and the explanation of the results is carried out based on the analysis of the crystal point defects. The active sputtering is used in a new approach to form lead telluride nanostructures on oxidized Si substrates via the vapour–liquid–solid (VLS) redeposition mechanism, and the fabrication of PbTe nanocones, nanocubes and nanowires with various geometrical parameters is demonstrated.