Transition from ripples to faceted structures under low-energy argon ion bombardment of silicon: understanding the role of shadowing and sputtering.

In this study, we have investigated temporal evolution of silicon surface topography under 500-eV argon ion bombardment for two angles of incidence, namely 70° and 72.5°. For both angles, parallel-mode ripples are observed at low fluences (up to 2 × 1017 ions cm-2) which undergo a transition to faceted structures at a higher fluence of 5 × 1017 ions cm-2.

Ripple formation on silicon by medium energy ion bombardment.

The formation of a self-organized nanoscale ripple pattern after off-normally incident ion bombardment on the surface of amorphous materials, or on semiconductors like silicon that are easily amorphized by ion bombardment, has attracted much attention in recent years from the point of view of both theory and applications. As the energy of the impinging ions increases from low to medium, i.e.