Abstract
Gas cluster ions accelerated to high kinetic energies can be used successfully for surface modification. The most impressive result of cluster ion irradiation appears to be a surface smoothing effect: a rough surface containing valleys and hills of average heights of the order of 100 Å becomes almost flat with the residual roughness reduced by a factor of 10. The Langevin dynamics based on the Kardar-Parisi-Zhang equation, combined with a Monte-Carlo procedure for crater formation, was used for simulation of the surface modification at cluster ion impacts. We found that for a crater size of the order of 20 Å, significant smoothing occurs after irradiation by approximately 103 cluster impacts; this was confirmed by experiment at dose of 1013 ions cm-2. The rate of the smoothing process depends on the value of surface diffusion coefficients, and can be accelerated significantly if the lateral sputtering phenomenon is taken into account.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 89-93 |
Number of pages | 5 |
Journal | Materials Science and Engineering A |
Volume | 217-218 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - Oct 30 1996 |
Externally published | Yes |
Keywords
- Cluster ion impact
- Computer simulation
- Crystal surface smoothing
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Materials Science(all)
- Condensed Matter Physics
- Mechanics of Materials
- Mechanical Engineering