Features of Ion-Beam Polishing of the Surface of Sapphire

The effect of an argon ion beam on the surface of sapphire is studied at different technological parameters: the ion energy, and the angle α between the sapphire surface and the ion-beam axis. The roughness of the sapphire surface is analyzed before and after ion polishing. The optimum ion-beam parameters are determined, at which the surface roughness after polishing decreases to 0.8 nm. At angles α = 20°–30°, the relief of the sapphire surface is found to become wavy. The study of the impact of the ion energy on the roughness of the sapphire surface in the 400–1200-eV range reveals that an increase in the energy of the ion beam to 1200 eV is accompanied with a decrease by 8.8 times in the roughness which falls below the level of 3 nm.     

Surface defects,stress evolution,and laser damage enhancement mechanism of fused silica under oxygen-enriched condition

Oxygen ions (O⁺) were implanted into fused silica at a fixed fluence of 1×10¹⁷ ions/cm² with different ion energies ranging from 10 keV to 60 keV. The surface roughness, optical properties, mechanical properties and laser damage performance of fused silica were investigated to understand the effect of oxygen ion implantation on laser damage resistance of fused silica. The ion implantation accompanied with sputtering effect can passivate the sub-/surface defects to reduce the surface roughness and improve the surface quality slightly. The implanted oxygen ions can combine with the structural defects (ODCs and E' centers) to reduce the defect densities and compensate the loss of oxygen in fused silica surface under laser irradiation. Furthermore, oxygen ion implantation can reduce the Si-O-Si bond angle and densify the surface structure, thus introducing compressive stress in the surface to strengthen the surface of fused silica. Therefore, the laser induced damage threshold of fused silica increases and the damage growth coefficient decreases when ion energy up to 30 keV. However, at higher ion energy, the sputtering effect is weakened and implantation becomes dominant, which leads to the surface roughness increase slightly. In addition, excessive energy aggravates the breaking of Si-O bonds. At the same time, the density of structural defects increases and the compressive stress decreases. These will degrade the laser laser-damage resistance of fused silica. The results indicate that oxygen ion implantation with appropriate ion energy is helpful to improve the damage resistance capability of fused silica components.     

Ion-beam modification of track membrane surface

An ion-beam method to modify the track membrane surface is suggested. An ion gun based on a magnetron sputterer is developed. This gun provides ion energies in the range of 5 eV–1 keV, ion current density up to 0.8 mA/cm², and an ion beam aperture of 90 mm. After the track membrane surface has been irradiated by argon ions with an energy of 50–100 eV, the angle of surface-water contact decreases from 65°–75° to 10°–25°. If the irradiating ion energy is 300–800 eV, the angle of contact increases from 65°–75° to 90°–100°.     

Surface morphology study of recrystallization dynamics of amorphous ZnO layers prepared on different substrates

Amorphous oxides-based devices are exposed, during fabrication, to different processing conditions affecting their properties. Zinc oxide is a prospective candidate for transparent amorphous oxides, but its structure is changing under the influence of temperature. We investigated surface recrystallization of amorphous zinc oxide layers deposited onto fused silica, sapphire and Si substrates by pulsed laser deposition. The prepared three series of layers had highly nonequilibrium phase structures. Using atomic force microscopy and scanning electron microscopy, the effect was studied of subsequent annealing at 200, 400, 600, 800 °C for 60 min upon the surface structural properties of the layers. The following parameters were analyzed: average roughness, RMS roughness and size of formed grains on selected places with 1 × 1 μm² area. Surface structural analysis revealed that annealing led to recrystallization of the prepared layers and roughening of the structural features on the surface. With increasing annealing temperature, the calculated parameters were increasing. The average surface roughness of zinc oxide layers annealed at 800 °C is three times higher than that of the layers annealed at lower temperatures for all substrates used. The process dynamics of thermally caused recrystallization of the layers was different for each of the substrates used.     

Erhöhung der Feldelektronen-Emission von Wolframspitzen durch Aufdampfen von Beryllium

The mean work function of tungsten determined from Fowler-Nordheim plots can be reduced from 4.5 to 2.5 eV by depositing a thin layer of evaporated beryllium and subsequent thermal treatment at 800 °C in a vacuum of 10^?7 to 10^?10 Torr. Electron and ion field emission patterns of tungsten tips with and without beryllium demonstrate the effect of the beryllium deposit. For an application of the tungsten tips with beryllium, the excellent stability and the high emissivity at low voltages are of interest.     

Electron stimulated desorption of oxygen from nickel

Electron Stimulated Desorption (ESD) of O⁺ ions from oxygen-covered Ni(100) has been investigated at 390 K and 500 eV primary energy. The ion energy distribution is found to peak at 7.5 eV and to extend to 11 eV, over our whole exposure range (0–1000 L). The 7.5 eV peak height as a function of exposure shows that desorption takes place both in the chemisorption and the oxidation region. Emission of O⁺ occurs preferentially along the surface normal, with a base width of ≈ 60°. No azimuthal structure is observed. Additional electron energy dependent measurements clearly show a threshold near the oxygen 2s level.     

Die Winkelabhängigkeit der Resonanzstreuung niederenergetischer Elektronen an He,Ne, Ar und N2

The energy dependence of the elastic resonance scattering of low energy electrons from He, Ne, Ar, and N₂ has been measured in the angular range from 8° to 110°. From the measurements are derived the total angular momenta and hence the configurations of the quasistationary negative ion states. The line shapes depend very strongly on the phase shifts for the potential scattering and on the interference of different partial waves. In the cases of He and Ne phase shifts are determined. The resonance structure in the elastic scattering from N₂ in the energy range from 1.75 eV to about 3,5 eV seems to be due to the formation of the N ₂ ^? -ion in its electronic ground state with a²Π configuration. The separations of its first few vibrational states are 237±10 meV, the natural half-width of these states being approximately 150 meV.     

Temperature measurements in plasmas generated by using lasers at different intensities

The temperature of laser-generated pulsed plasmas is an important property that depends on many parameters, such as the particle species and the time elapsed from the laser interaction with the matter and the surface characteristics.

Laser-generated plasmas with low intensity (<10¹⁰ W/cm²) at INFN-LNS of Catania and with high intensity (>10¹⁴ W/cm²) in PALS laboratory in Prague have been investigated in terms of temperatures relative to ions, electrons, and neutral species. Time-of-flight (ToF) measurements have been performed with an electrostatic ion energy analyzer (IEA) and with different Faraday cups, in order to measure the ion and electron average velocities. The IEA was also used to measure the ion energy, the ion charge state, and the ion energy distribution.

The Maxwell–Boltzmann function permitted to fit the experimental data and to extrapolate the ion temperature of the plasma core.

The velocity of the neutrals was measured with a special mass quadrupole spectrometer. The Nd:Yag laser operating at low intensity produced an ion temperature core of the order of 400 eV and a neutral temperature of the order of 100 eV for many ablated materials. The ToF of electrons indicates the presence of hot electron emission with an energy of ～1 keV.     

Conductivity of β″ and ion rich β alumina.I.H.+(H2O)n compounds

The conductivity and thermal stability of H⁺(H₂O)_n β″ and ion rich β alumina single crystals have been measured by the complex impedance method in the 25–700°C temperature range. Two mechanisms of conductivity were assumed: proton transfer at lower temperatures and H₃O⁺ diffusion in the high-temperature range. Both structures have similar properties, but ion rich β alumina possesses the best stability and the lowest activation energy (β: 0.15 eV, β″: 0.20 eV below 400 and 300°C respectively). The room-temperature conductivity is ≈5×10^?6 Ω^?1 cm^?1. The conducting properties and mechanisms are discussed and compared to other protonic or ionic conductors.     

Die Verfestigungserholung von plastisch verformten Steinsalzeinkristallen

Cylindrical rock salt single crystals have been plastically deformed by compression in the [001]-direction at room temperature to shear stresser τ _E of 200 N/cm² and 350 N/cm², respectively. Isochronal annealing experiments reveal, that workhardening recovers at >300° C. The characteristic annealing temperature was found between 400° C and 450° C. At 600° C the residual workhardening still amounts to 15–20%. The isochronal reduction of screw dislocation density between 400 and 600° C shows qualitatively the same behaviour as recovery of workhardening. From the isothermal annealing curves of the samples deformed to 200 N/cm² the activation energy for recovery of workhardening was found to be about 1 eV. Assuming that the kinetics of recovery can be explained by processes distributed in activation energy, an approximate spectrum of activation energies (with a maximum arising at ～1 eV) has been evaluated. The results show that recovery of workhardening after low deformation (stage I of the stress strain curve) is mainly due to the dislocations.     

Investigation of the binary model of scattering of 1 keV to 25 eV Ar+ ions from a Cu surface 1

The validity of the binary collision approximation for describing the scattering of low energy Ar ions from a polycrystalline Cu surface was investigated. The Ar ions were incident upon the target surface at an angle of 45° (with respect of the plane of the surface). The range of primary ion energy studied was 1000–25 eV. An ultra-high vacuum magnetic sector mass spectrometer was used to analyze those secondary ions emitted from the specimen surface at an angle of 90° with respect to the primary ion beam. The scattered ions were identified and their energies measured. No significant deviation from the prediction of the binary collision model was found throughout the range of energy studied.     

The 12C(13C, α)21Ne reaction: High-spin states,resonances and coherence widths

Excitation functions were measured for states of ²¹Ne populated by the ${}^{12}\text{C}\text{(}{}^{13}\text{C}\text{, α)}$ reaction over the bombarding energy range E_lab = 18.2–32.0 MeV (18.4–27.0 MeV) at θ_lab = 7°(25°) in in 200 keV steps, and average coherence widths of states and the moment of inertia of the compound nucleus ²⁵Mg were obtained from these excitation functions. A statistical analysis of these data was performed. Angular distributions for states in ²¹Ne to 10 MeV in excitation energy were measured at θ_lab = 7°, 18°, 28° and 43° at bombarding energies from 29.0 to 31.0 MeV in 400 keV steps. These data along with Hauser-Feshbach predictions allow us to suggest spins for some states as well as to suggest possible candidates for rotational bands in ²¹Ne.     

Ion beam shaping of embedded metal nanoparticles by Si+ ion irradiation

Fine Co and Pt nanoparticles are nucleated when a silica sample is implanted with 400 keV Co⁺ and 1370 keV Pt⁺ ions. At the implanted range, Co and Pt react to form small Co _x Pt_(1?x) nanoparticles during Si⁺ ion irradiation at 300 °C. Thermal annealing of the pre-implanted silica substrate at 1000 °C results in the formation of spherical nanoparticles of various sizes. When irradiated with Si⁺ ions at 300 °C, particles in the size range of 5–17 nm undergo rod-like shape transformation with an elongation in the direction of the incident ion beam, while those particles in the size range of 17–26 nm turn into elliptical shape. Moreover, it is suspected that very big nanoparticles (size >26 nm) decrease in size, while small nanoparticles (size <5 nm) do not undergo any transformation. During Si⁺ ion irradiation, the crystalline nature of the nanoparticles is preserved. The results are discussed in the light of the thermal spike model.     

离子源工艺参数对BCB胶刻蚀速率和表面粗糙度的影响

为了研究离子束刻蚀抛光过程中离子源工艺参数对刻蚀速率及表面粗糙度的影响,采用微波离子源为刻蚀离子源,以BCB胶为主要研究对象,研究了离子束能量、离子束电流、氩气流量、氧气流量对BCB胶刻蚀速率及表面粗糙度的影响,获得了离子源工艺参数与刻蚀速率及表面粗糙度演变的关系。研究结果表明,离子束能量在从400 eV增大到800 eV的过程中,刻蚀速率不断增大,从3.2 nm/min增大到16.6 nm/min;离子束流密度在从15 mA增大到35 mA的过程中,刻蚀速率不断增大,从1.1 nm/min增大到2.2 nm/min;工作气体中氧气流量从2 mL/min增大到10 mL/min的过程中,刻蚀速率会整体增大,在8 mL/min处略有下降。表面粗糙度变化不大,可以控制在1.8 nm以下。     

Study of the angular and energy distributions of Na+ and K+ ions which have passed through thin copper films

The angular and energy distributions of alkaline Na⁺ and K⁺ ions which have passed through thin Cu films in different crystal states are studied. The ion energy E₀ is varied from 10 to 40 keV, and the incidence angle. ranges from 0° to 60°. The angular aperture of the detector is ～0.5°, which allows the form of the angular distribution of ions which have passed through the solid thin films as a function of the energy, the angle of primary-ion beam incidence, and the layer thickness to be studied in detail. It is shown that, in the range E₀ = 10.40 keV, the energy loss ΔE of those ions that have passed increases linearly as the energy of incident ions increases. The energy loss increases with increasing ion mass in the case of singly charged ions. The surface amorphization of single- and polycrystalline films leads to an increase (by 150–200 eV) in the energy loss caused by the diffuse propagation of ions and to loss-peak broadening. It is probable that surface amorphization is accompanied by an increase in the number of atoms experiencing multiple collisions with atoms of the film, which leads to an increase in the average energy loss by ions that have passed through films.     

Ionized physical vapor deposited Al2O3 films: Does subplantation favor formation of α‐Al2O3?

The broad energy distributions of the condensing particles typically encountered in ion assisted vapor deposition techniques are often a drawback when attempting to understand the effect of the energetic bombardment on the film properties. In the current study, a monoenergetic Al⁺ beam generated by a filtered cathodic arc discharge is employed for the deposition of alumina (Al₂O₃) films at well defined Al⁺ ion energies between 4 eV and 200 eV at a substrate temperature of 720 °C. Structural analysis shows that Al⁺ energies of 40 eV or larger favor the formation of the thermodynamically stable α‐Al₂O₃ phase at the expense of other metastable Al₂O₃ polymorphs. The well defined ion energies are used as input for Monte‐Carlo based simulations of the ion–surface interactions. The results of these simulations reveal that the increase of the Al⁺ ion energy leads to an increase in the fraction of ions subplanted into the growing film. These findings underline the previously not considered role of subsurface processes on the phase formation of ionized physical vapor deposited Al₂O₃ films. (© 2010 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

The GaP(001) surface and the adsorption of Cs

GaP(001) cleaned by argon-ion bombardment and annealed at 500°C showed the Ga-stabilized GaP(001)(4 × 2) structure. Only treatment in 10^?5 Torr PH₃ at 500°C gave the P-stabilized GaP(001)(1 × 2) structure. The AES peak ratio $\text{P}\text{Ga}$ is 2 for the (4 × 2) and 3.5 for the (1 × 2) structure. Cs adsorbs with a sticking probability of unity up to 5 × 10¹⁴ Cs atoms cm^?2 and a lower one at higher coverages. The photoemission measured with uv light of 3660 Å showed a maximum at the coverage of 5 × 10¹⁴ atoms cm^?2. Cs adsorbs amorphously at room temperature, but heat treatment gives ordered structures, which are thought to be reconstructed GaP(001) structures induced by Cs. The LEED patterns showed the GaP(001)(1 × 2) Cs structure formed at 180°C for 10 h with a Cs coverage of 5 × 10¹⁴ atoms cm^?2, the GaP(001)(1 × 4) Cs formed at 210°C for 10 hours with a Cs coverage of 2.7 × 10¹⁴ atoms cm^?2, the GaP(001)(7 × 1) and the high temperature GaP(001)(1 × 4), the latter two with very low Cs content. Desorption measurements show three stability regions: (a) between 25–150°C for coverages greater than 5 × 10¹⁴ atoms cm^?2, and an activation energy of 1.2 eV; (b) between 180–200°C with a coverage of 5 × 10¹⁴ atoms cm^?2, and an activation energy of 1.8 eV; (c) between 210–400°C with a coverage of 2.7 × 10¹⁴ atoms cm^?2, and an activation energy of 2.5 eV.     

几种微构件材料的表面能及纳观黏附行为研究

对微机电系统（MEMS）中几种常用构件材料的表面能及其主要影响因素进行了探讨,并与材料表面的纳观黏附性能进行了分析比较.用Owens二液法计算出硅基材料的表面能在60—75 mJ/m²之间,它们之间总表面能的差异主要归结为表面能极性分量的差异,表面粗糙度的存在使表观表面能有所偏高.施加自组装分子膜后的表面能大为降低,粗糙度的存在可以使其表面能进一步减小.纳观黏附力和表面能之间有一定的对应关系.另外,在研究中发现表面粗糙度对纳观黏附行为的影响较小. 关键词： MEMS 表面能 纳观黏附 粗糙度     

Inelastic effect in low energy ion-surface collisions: He+Au,Ag

Energy distributions of He⁺ ions scattered by Au and Ag surfaces are measured by an ISS system with high energy resolution, at a scattering angle of 90° and at incident ion energies ranging from 277 to 977 eV. It is found that the observed peak energies deviate toward the low energy side by several electron-volts with respect to the calculated elastic single collision energies. Both the deviation Q' and the inelastic loss energy Q are plotted as a function of incident ion energy for the Au surface.     

Controlled surface crystallization of fused silica by Li+-Ion implantation

A new method of producing a glass-ceramic surface layer on fused silica has been demonstrated using Li⁺-ion implantation and relatively low-temperature annealing. Infrared reflection spectroscopy (IRS) was used to study the effects of ion implantation on structural changes. Isochronal annealing of samples implanted with 250 keV Li⁺/cm² brings about a dramatic change in the IRS spectra at 800°C in that it becomes identical with that of α-quartz. The dependence of the degree of crystallization on temperature, Li⁺-ion fluence, and silica type was studied.