Surface morphology of Ge(001) during etching by low-energy ions
- 15 December 1995
- journal article
- research article
- Published by American Physical Society (APS) in Physical Review B
- Vol. 52 (23) , 16696-16701
- https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevb.52.16696
Abstract
The roughening of a crystalline semiconductor during etching by low-energy ions is characterized using in situ scanning tunneling microscopy. Ge(001) surfaces are bombarded by 240-eV Xe ions using a wide range of exposure times and temperatures. Ge dimers are resolved for surfaces etched at T>+165 °C and imaged at room temperature. For fixed ion exposure, the roughness increases with increasing temperature; a maximum surface roughness is reached for etching at ≃250 °C. At T≃270 °C the character of the surface morophology changes from a relatively disordered arrangement of mounds to a more regular pattern of pits. The isotropy of this pattern formation and the dependence of the in-plane length of the roughness on exposure time suggest that asymmetric kinetics for the attachment of dimer vacancies at ascending versus descending steps drives roughening during etching.Keywords
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