Smoothing, compaction, mixing, sputtering and dewetting of semimetal- and halogenide-coatings by swift heavy ion irradiation

Sputtering and surface topography modification of bismuth thin films under swift 84Kr15+ ion irradiation

“…One can also note the absence of any atomic interface mixing in the irradiated Bi/Si samples over the ion fluence range investigated. This observation is consistent with at least two previous results [22,23] for Bi/Si samples irradiated by SHI, suggesting that the effect of the latter on the target atomic mixing depends not only on the sensitivity of interface-forming materials to the electronic energy deposition but also on chemical driving forces that prevent inter-diffusion to occur in the thermal spike region. The RBS spectra for the irradiated samples were simulated by the RUMP computer code [24] in order to determine quantitatively the variation of the Bi sample thickness following SHI impacts.…”

Sputtering and crystalline structure modification of bismuth thin films deposited onto silicon substrates under the impact of 20–160keV Ar+ ions

“…Unlike knock-on collision induced-sputtering, in electronic sputtering both the sputter yields and energy distributions of the ejected species are crucially dependent on target sample properties. In experimental conditions where they predominate, inelastic electronic collision processes give rise to sputtering yields much higher than those induced by nuclear elastic collisions and to various surface effects such as track damage, smoothing and atomic mixing within the thermal spike regime [5,7,8]. Therefore, the interaction mechanisms underlying surface defect creation and surface morphology evolution are likely more complex than discussed above.…”

“…3, 4 and 6 where it can be seen that below the fluence value at which saturation starts the Bi sample surface is made of small grains with polycrystalline structure of random orientations, then increasingly converts to larger grains oriented to the (0 0 1) preferred crystalline structure above this u value. The importance of the ion fluence dependence of sputtering yields at low ion fluences also expectedly relates to the Bi film deposition conditions such as, mainly, the sample thickness [8,26] that influences the further sample surface morphology and crystalline structure evolutions under ion beam impacts, and the substrate temperature. It seems, however, that the influence of the target sample thickness on the sputtering yield variation at low u-values is not important beyond a certain upper limit, say of the order of 100 nm.…”

“…In particular, the sputtering of semi-metallic targets like bismuth has been much less studied than for other solids. This element of specific properties has recently received a special attention in materials science and ion beam applications [5][6][7][8] (and references therein). However, only very few sputtering yield experimental data are available [9][10][11] for this material within the keV (high) ion energy region.…”

Sputtering of bismuth thin films under MeV Cu heavy ion irradiation: Experimental data and inelastic thermal spike model interpretation.

“…We note that only a few experimental sputtering yield data are available for this material within the MeV high energy. Previous published works have been focused mainly on the study of other induced damages like latent tracks formation in bulk bismuth and ion‐beam mixing effects in case of Bi thin films . Recently, we reported a careful experimental investigation of the sputtering and surface topography modifications suffered by Bi thin films deposited onto Si substrates under normal impacts of 27.5‐MeV 84 Kr 15+ ions .…”