Evolution of nanoripples on silicon by gas cluster-ion irradiation

Si wafers of (100), (110) and (111) orientations were bombarded by gas cluster ion beam (GCIB) of 3000 Ar-atoms/cluster on average at a series of angles. Similar surface morphology ripples developed in different nanoscales. A simple scaling functional satisfactorily describe the roughness and wavele...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Omar Lozano, Q. Y. Chen, B. P. Tilakaratne, H. W. Seo, X. M. Wang, P. V. Wadekar, P. V. Chinta, L. W. Tu, N. J. Ho, D. Wijesundera, W. K. Chu
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: AIP Publishing LLC 2013-06-01
Series:AIP Advances
Online Access:http://link.aip.org/link/doi/10.1063/1.4811171
Description
Summary:Si wafers of (100), (110) and (111) orientations were bombarded by gas cluster ion beam (GCIB) of 3000 Ar-atoms/cluster on average at a series of angles. Similar surface morphology ripples developed in different nanoscales. A simple scaling functional satisfactorily describe the roughness and wavelength of the ripple patterns as a function of dosage and angle of incidence. The ripples are formed orthogonal to the incident cluster-ions at large off-normal angles. An ellipsoidal pattern was created by two consecutive irradiations incident in mutually orthogonal directions with unequal exposure times between each irradiation, from 7:1 to 10:1, beyond which the original ripple imprints would be over-written. This work was inspired by use of the ripples to seed growth of controlled nanostructures without patterning by lithography or predeposition of catalysts.
ISSN:2158-3226