Wystąpienie ustne Arkadiusz Piotr Foks (PFC-Pia)

Study of nanostructures formed by the interaction of low-energy HCI xenon with Ti and Au nanolayers using AFM and STM techniques

Arkadiusz Piotr Foks¹, Ilona Stabrawa¹, Dariusz Banaś¹, Aldona Kubala-Kukuś¹, Łukasz Jabłoński¹, Paweł Jagodziński¹, Daniel Sobota¹, Karol Szary¹, Marek Pajek¹, Ewaryst Mendyk², Krzysztof Skrzypiec², Michał Borysiewicz³

¹ Uniwersytet Jana Kochanowskiego, Stefana Żeromskiego 5, 25-369 Kielce, Polska
² Wydział Chemii UMCS, pl. M. Curie-Skłodowskiej 2, 20-031 Lublin, Polska
³ Instytut Mikroelektroniki i Fotoniki, Wólczyńska 133, 01-919 Warszawa, Polska

The method of surface modification by the impact of low-energy highly charged ions (HCI) can be used to change the topology of the surface, and thus has potential to develop materials with new and unique properties. [1]. This method can be used e.g., for creation of various surface nanostructures (pits, craters, hillocks) [2], for nanopatterning [3], and perforating of single-layer materials [4]).

In this work, modifications of Ti and Au nanolayers caused by highly charged xenon ions were studied. The nanolayers were prepared at the Institute of Electron Technology (Warsaw, Poland) using VST TFDS- 462U deposition system. As a substrate Topsil (Warsaw, Poland) Si (110) polished prime wafers type N were used. The nanolayers were irradiated with Xe^q+ (q = 15 – 40) ions in the energy range hundreds of keV (nuclear stopping power regime) at a fluence of about 10¹⁰ ions/cm² using low energy HCI accelerator with the EBIS ion source installed at the Institute of Physics, Jan Kochanowski University (Kielce, Poland) [5, 6]. Well pronounced modifications of the nanolayers surface, due to impact of the HCI ions, in the form of hillock and craters have been observed.

The topographic modifications of the samples surface induced by Xe^q+ ions were investigated using atomic force microscopy (Faculty of Chemistry, UMCS, Lublin, Poland) and scanning tunneling microscope (Institute of Physics, Jan Kochanowski University, Kielce, Poland).

The AFM measurements of the studied samples were performed using Multimode 8 AFM equipped with NanoScope software (Bruker-Veeco, USA). The AFM was operated in SCANASYST-HR fast scanning mode using SCANASYST-AIR-HR probe (Silicon Tip on Nitride Lever) with the cantilever of force constant k = 0.4 N/m. The measurements were performed in air. The lateral and vertical resolutions were 4 nm and 0.1 nm for the 1 μm x 1 μm, and 2 nm and 0.1 nm for the 500 nm x 500 nm images. Data acquisition by STM method was performed using SPM Aarhus 150 operating with Nanonis control system (SPECS). The tip was polycrystalline tungsten wire etched by the argon ion sputtering. Measuring equipment is located in the ultra-high vacuum chamber (10^-10 mbar) and operating in the room temperature.

The obtained images were analyzed with the WSxM software. The collected data made it possible to correlate the mean nanostructures size (diameters, depths, heights, volumes) with different ion parameters.

References

[1] J. V. Barth et al. 2005 Nature 437 671

[2] F. Aumayr et al. 2011 J. Phys.: Condens. Matter 23 393001

[3] J. Gierak 2014 Nanofabrication 1 35

[4] R. Kozubek et al. 2019 J. Phys. Chem. Lett. 10(5) 904

[5] D. Banaś et al. 2015 Nucl. Instr. Meth. B 354 125

[6] I. Stabrawa et al. 2017 Nucl. Instr. Meth. B 408 235