We report on self-organized patterning of polycrystalline noble metal films on dielectric substrates by defocused Ar+ ion beam irradiation. The initial surface morphology affects the formation of nanostructures, influencing the lateral periodicity of the ripples via the pristine polycrystalline grain distribution. At the early stages, the self-organization process is dominated by the shadowing of taller grains, moving towards the conventional erosive regime for longer sputtering times. The grain boundaries do not affect the propagation of nanoscale ripples across individual grains.
COBISS.SI-ID: 708010
Studies of the glancing incidence Ar+ defocused ion beam induced self-organized patterning of polycrystalline metal films on dielectric substrates show that a nonflat initial surface morphology plays a critical role in triggering self-organization during the early stages, where the distribution of polycrystalline grains initially imposes a nonstochastic spatial modulation of the ion impact sites. At longer sputtering times an erosive regime sets in. On the nonflat films the ion dose required for the formation of the nanoscale patterns is reduced compared to the initially flat film.
COBISS.SI-ID: 693418
The authors have performed Ar+ broad ion beam sputtering of a polycrystalline Fe-Si-Al alloy at normal incidence at energies varying from 6 to 10 keV. Sputtering results in the formation of etch pits, which can be classified in three shapes: triangular, rectangular, and square. As each grain of individual orientation exhibits a certain type of pattern, the etch pits were correlated with the crystal orientations by electron backscattered diffraction technique.
COBISS.SI-ID: 812714
FeSiAl electrical steel was sputtered by Ar+ at 10 keV, off-normal incidence. SEM imaged surface morphologies could be roughly divided into four classes: ripples parallel or perpendicular to the ion beam , smooth surfaces and rough faceted surfaces. EDS results show that individual grains are compositionally homogeneous, therefore, the different patterns originate from differences in crystal orientations. EBDS established that grains with similar orientation in the normal direction behave in a similar way patternwise. XPS analysis showed some Si enrichment of the surface layers.
COBISS.SI-ID: 802730