Abstract
110 surface has been investigated by scanning tunneling microscopy. Ripple formation is a con-sequence of preferential sputtering of monatomic step edges with a directional component perpendicular to theion-beam azimuth. The combination of preferential erosion of step edges and ion-beam-induced surface rough-ening results in a surface morphology with nanoripples aligned parallel to the ion-beam azimuth. We investi-gate the surface-structure evolution as a function of ion fluence for two ion-beam azimuth directions. Analysisof the formation and evolution of sputter-induced vacancy islands shows that under the conditions employedhere 0.8 keV Ar ions, 8° grazing incidence angle the sputter probability at step edges is significantlyenhanced compared to sputtering at flat terraces. Although the initial vacancy island morphology can bestrongly influenced by the step-edge formation energies for different crystallographic orientations, both inves-tigated azimuth directions form similar ripple structures at high ion fluences. This study demonstrates thatgrazing incidence ion beams can be employed to pattern oxide substrates with quasiperiodic nanoripples withripple spacing of tens of nanometer.DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevB.82.035408 PACS number s : 79.20.Rf, 68.47.Gh, 68.37.Ef
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