Low sputter damage of metal single crystalline surfaces investigated with medium energy ion scattering spectroscopy

It was observed clearly that the sputter damage due to Ar⁺ ion bombardment on metal single crystalline surfaces is extremely low and the local surface atomic structure is preserved, which is totally different from semiconductor single crystalline surfaces. Medium energy ion scattering spectroscopy (MEIS) shows that there is little irradiation damage on the metal single crystalline surfaces such as Pt(111), Pt(100), and Cu(111), in contrast to the semiconductor Si(100) surfaces, for the ion energy of 3–7 keV even above 10¹⁶–10¹⁷ ions/cm² ion doses at room temperature. However, low energy electron diffraction (LEED) spots became blurred after bombardment. Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) studies of a Pt polycrystalline thin film showed formation of dislocations after sputtering. Complementary MEIS, LEED and TEM data show that on sputtered single-crystal metal surfaces, metal atoms recrystallize at room temperature after each ion impact. After repeated ion impacts, local defects accumulate to degrade long range orders.