Characterization of ion-irradiation-induced nanodot structures on InP surfaces by atom probe tomography

Nanocone formation on ion-bombarded InP surfaces

“…However, other studies [28,36,38] carried out on InP under similar experimental conditions did not find evidence for such regions of essentially pure In in the nanocones; rather, the cones were reported to be composed of InP but could be partially crystalline [28]. Preliminary results from atom probe tomography on the nanocone structures considered here seem to confirm that the their interior composition is InP [25]. A caveat seems to be in place here: the analytical determination of the composition within regions of a few tens of nm is by no means a trivial undertaking and possibly prone to some uncertainty.…”

“…Further theoretical approaches [20][21][22][23] experimental investigation is quite challenging. In previous studies [24,25], such possible compositional variations in individual nanodots caused by ion bombardment, were examined by means of atom probe tomography [26].…”