Abstract
The metal impurity assisted ion beam technology has shown its uniqueness and effectiveness in the formation and precise control of nanostructures on the surface of materials. Hence, the investigation in this area is vital. The morphology evolution of self-organized nanostructures induced by Fe co-deposition assisted Ar+ ion beam sputtering at a different distance from the impurity target was investigated on sapphire, using atomic force microscopy (AFM) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). We also investigated the role of metal impurities on sapphire ripple formation. Experiments were carried out at an oblique angle of incidence 65° with constant ion beam current density 487 μA/cm2 and the erosion duration of 60 min at room temperature (20 °C). The introduction of Fe impurity increased the longitudinal height and roughness of the surface nanostructures. Moreover, the amounts of Fe deposited on the surface decreased with increasing distance, and the morphology of the smooth sapphire surface demonstrated a strong distance dependence. Differences in surface morphology were attributed to changes in metal impurity concentration. With an increase of impurity target distance, island-like structures gradually evolved into continuous ripples. At the same time, the orderliness of nanostructures was enhanced, the longitudinal height gradually decreased, while the spatial frequency was unchanged. In addition, there were very few metal impurities on the etched sample. During the ion beam sputtering process, island-like structures promoted the growth of ripples but destroyed their orderliness.
Highlights
Metal impurity assisted ion beam as an effective means can control the growth of self-organized nanostructures but modulate nanopatterns too [1,2,3]
The surface structures can be artificially controllable by adjusting the introduction of metal impurity atoms, which may compensate for the defects of the pure ion beam sputtering (IBS)
We have investigated the pattern formation on sapphire irradiated by 1000 eV Ar ion beam with Fe co-deposition and without Fe co-deposition, and explored the role of metal impurities on sapphire ripple formation
Summary
Metal impurity assisted ion beam as an effective means can control the growth of self-organized nanostructures but modulate nanopatterns too [1,2,3]. Introducing metal impurities will promote the formation of patterns below the critical incidence angle of the ion beam, improve the orderliness and modulate the symmetry, etc. This technology can be applied in microelectronic device manufacturing, catalysis, nanomagnetism, plasma electronics, and so on. Dekang Chen of the University of science and technology of China observed well-ordered ripple structures for the co-deposition of Mo atoms during Ar+ bombardment [9]. These patterns present with a Coatings 2020, 10, 949; doi:10.3390/coatings10100949 www.mdpi.com/journal/coatings
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