Sputtering induced by cluster impact on metal targets: Influenceof electronic stopping

The effect of electronic stopping on the sputtering of metals by cluster impact is discussed. We focus on the specific case of Au₁₃ impact on a Au surface. Using molecular-dynamics simulation, we study several strategies to include electronic stopping. Electronic stopping influences both the magnitude of the sputter yield and the duration of the sputter process. In the usual procedure, electronic stopping only affects sufficiently fast atoms with kinetic energies above a threshold energy, which is of the order of the target cohesive energy. When assuming that electronic stopping holds down to thermal energies <1 eV, or even to 0 eV, the collision spike is rapidly quenched and the sputter yields become unrealistically small. Furthermore, we implement a scheme to include electronic stopping based on local (electron) density information readily available in a simulation.     

Study of density effect of large gas cluster impact by molecular dynamics simulations

Large gas cluster impacts cause unique surface modification effects because a large number of target atoms are moved simultaneously due to high-density particle collisions between cluster and surface atoms. Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations of large gas cluster impacts on solid targets were carried out in order to investigate the effect of high-density irradiation with a cluster ion beam from the viewpoint of crater formation and sputtering. An Ar cluster with the size of 2000 was accelerated with 20 keV (10 eV for each constituent atom) and irradiated on a Si(1 0 0) solid target consisting of 2 000 000 atoms. The radius of the Ar cluster was scaled by ranging from 2.3 nm (corresponding to the solid state of Ar) to 9.2 nm (64× lower density than solid state). When the Ar cluster was as dense as solid state, the incident cluster penetrated the target surface and generated crater-like damage. On the other hand, as the cluster radius increased and the irradiation particle density decreased, the depth of crater caused by cluster impact was reduced. MD results also revealed that crater depth was mainly dominated by the horizontal scaling rather than vertical scaling. A high sputtering yield of more than several tens of Si atoms per impact was observed with clusters of 4-20× lower volume density than solid state.     

Comparison of secondary electron emission in helium ion microscope with gallium ion and electron microscopes

To evaluate secondary electron (SE) image characteristics in helium ion microscope, Si surfaces with a rod and step structures is scanned by 30 keV He and Ga ion beams and 1 keV electron beam. The topographic sensitivity of He ions is in principle higher than that for scanning electron microscope (SEM) because of the stronger dependency of SE yield versus incident angle for He ions. As shrinking to sub nm patterns, the pseudo-images constructed from line profile of SE intensity by the electron beam lose their sharpness, however, the images for the He and Ga ion beams keep clearness due to darkening the bottom corners of the pattern. Here, the sputter erosion for Ga ions must be considered. Furthermore, trajectories of emitted SEs are simulated for a rectangular Al surface scanned by the beams to study voltage contrast, where positive and negative voltages are applied to the small area of the sample. Both less high energy component in the energy distribution of SEs and dominant contribution of direct SE excitation by a projectile He ion keep a high voltage contrast down to a sub nm sized area positively biased against the zero-potential surroundings.     

Monte Carlo study of ion-induced backward and forward secondary electron emission from thin Al foil

A direct Monte Carlo program has been developed to calculate the backward (γ_b) and forward (γ_f) electron emission yields from 20 nm thick Al foil for impact of C⁺, Al⁺, Ar⁺, Cu⁺ and Kr⁺ ions having energies in the range of 0.1-10 keV/amu. The program incorporates the excitation of target electrons by projectile ions, recoiling target atoms and fast primary electrons. The program can be used to calculate the electron yields, distribution of electron excitation points in the target and other physical parameters of the emitted electrons. The calculated backward electron emission yield and the Meckbach factor R = γ_f/γ_b are compared with the available experimental data, and a good agreement is found. In addition, the effect of projectile energy and mass on the longitudinal and lateral distribution of the excitation points of the electrons emitted from front and back of Al target has been investigated.     

Monte Carlo study of ion-induced secondary electron emission from SiO2

Here we describe a recently developed direct Monte Carlo program to study kinetic electron emission from SiO₂ target. The program includes excitation of the target electrons (by projectile ions, recoiling target atoms and fast primary electrons), subsequent transport and escape of these electrons from the target surface. The program can be used to calculate the electron yields, distribution of electron excitation points in the target and other physical parameters of the emitted electrons. In order to demonstrate the capabilities of this program, we report a study on the kinetic electron emission from SiO₂ induced by fast (1-10 keV) rare gas ions. The calculated kinetic electron yield for various ion energies and masses is in good agreement with the predictions of most frequently applied theoretical model. In addition, the effects of projectile energy, mass and impact angle on the depth distribution of electron excitation points and average escape depth of the outgoing electrons were investigated. It is important to mention that the existing experimental techniques are not capable to measure these parameters.     

A Time of Flight-Energy spectrometer for stopping power measurements in Heavy Ion-ERD analysis at iThemba LABS

The quantitative analysis of thin layers using Heavy Ion-Elastic Recoil Detection (HI-ERD) can be reliably performed if the stopping powers of the probing ions and recoils in a given target matrix are known accurately. Unfortunately for many projectile/target combinations experimental data is limited and where available, deviations of up to 50% between experiment and theory have been reported. This presentation describes the assembly of a Time of Flight-Energy (ToF-E) detector system developed for HI-ERD analysis and adapted for stopping power measurements at iThemba LABS. First results from energy loss measurements of 0.1-0.5 MeV/nucleon ²⁸Si and ⁸⁴Kr ions in ZrO₂ are presented and compared with predictions of the widely used SRIM2003 (Stopping Range of Ions in Matter).     

Segregation of atoms in NixPdy alloys during ion irradiation

Sputtering of Ni₅Pd and NiPd₅ alloys by 10 keV Ar ions has been studied using the binary-collision simulation. Special attention was given to the angular distributions of sputtered atoms at the steady-state conditions. The results of simulations were compared with the experimental data published recently. For both targets, the concentrations of Ni and Pd atoms in the top monolayer were extracted from the experimental data. The results of simulations favor segregation of Pd in Ni₅Pd and segregation of Ni in NiPd₅. The total concentration of surface vacancies was found to be about 10-30%.     

MD study on temperature dependence of sputtering yield

Temperature dependence of sputtering yield is studied through molecular dynamics (MD) simulation that is performed for Ag sputtered by 12.6 keV Ar impacting at normal incidence. The target temperature is considered from 300 to 1235 K. It is found that the target temperature has little effect on the monomer yield because it comes from the energetic collision cascade. On the other hand, the sputtered cluster yield increases with the target temperature. It seems that the sputtered cluster is produced due to the thermal spike near the surface and the thermal spike is strongly influenced by the target temperature.     

Ion guiding in alumina capillaries: MCP images of the transmitted ions

Transmission of a few keV impact energy Ne⁶⁺ ions through capillaries in anodic alumina membranes has been studied with different ion counting methods using an energy dispersive electrostatic spectrometer, a multichannel plate (MCP) array and sensitive current-measurement. In the present work, we focus our attention to the measurements with the MCP array. The alumina capillaries were prepared by electro-chemical oxidation of aluminium foils. For the present experiments guiding of 3-6 keV Ne⁶⁺ ions has been studied in two samples with capillary diameter of about 140 nm and 260 nm and with capillary length of about 15 μm. At these energies, the ions have been efficiently guided by the capillaries up to few degrees tilt angle. In this work, we compare the results obtained by the energy dispersive spectrometer to those studied by the MCP array.     

Separation of potential and kinetic electron emission from Si and W induced by multiply charged neon and argon ions

The total secondary electron emission yields, γ_T, induced by impact of the fast ions Ne^q+ (q = 2-8) and Ar^q+ (q = 3-12) on Si and Ne^q+ (q = 2-8) on W targets have been measured. It was observed that for a given impact energy, γ_T increases with the charge of projectile ion. By plotting γ_T as a function of the total potential energy of the respective ion, true kinetic and potential electron yields have been obtained. Potential electron yield was proportional to the total potential energy of the projectile ion. However, decrease in potential electron yield with increasing kinetic energy of Ne^q+ impact on Si and W was observed. This decrease in potential electron yield with kinetic energy of the ion was more pronounced for the projectile ions having higher charge states. Moreover, kinetic electron yield to energy-loss ratio for various ion-target combinations was calculated and results were in good agreement with semi-empirical model for kinetic electron emission.     

Electron emission from tungsten induced by slow, fusion-relevant ions

Tungsten has recently been introduced as a new wall material for fusion, because it exhibits favourably low sputtering yields and a very low tritium retention as compared to the commonly used graphite wall and divertor tiles. We measure total electron emission yields due to impact of slow singly and multiply charged ions (deuterium, helium and carbon) on sputter-cleaned polycrystalline tungsten surfaces by using a current method in combination with a retarding grid. Results are presented in the eV to keV impact energy region as typical for fusion edge plasma conditions and discussed in terms of potential and kinetic electron emission.     

The influence of the charged back side on the transmission of highly charged ions through PC nanocapillaries

We have measured the fraction of the ions transmitted through nanocapillaries with their initial charge state for 200 keV Xe⁷⁺ ions impact on a polycarbonate (PC) foil with a thickness of 30 μm and a diameter of 150 nm. An Au film was evaporated on both the front and back side. It is found that more than 97% of the transmitted ions remain in their initial charge state. Then, the transmitted ion fraction and the characteristic tilt angle of 40 keV Xe⁷⁺ ions through this foil and another one with the same thickness and diameter, but evaporated by Au only on the front side, were measured. By comparing the results of these two foils, the influence of the ions deposited in the capillary exit region on the transmitted ion fraction and the characteristic tilt angle is studied. In comparison with the foil evaporated by Au on both sides, the maximum transmitted ion fraction of the foil evaporated by Au on the front side only is nearly 4 times smaller. Also, the characteristic tilt angle is slightly decreased. These results are discussed within the models for the guiding effect.     

Azimuthal scans in LEIS: Influence of the scattering potential

Angular scans were performed for a Cu(1 0 0) single crystal and 3 keV He⁺ ions. The results were compared to simulations using the Monte-Carlo code TRIC [R. Andrzejewski, Ph.D. thesis, Universidad Autonóma de Madrid, 2008; V.A. Khodyrev, R. Andrzejewski, A. Rivera, D.O. Boerma, J.E. Prieto, in press] to obtain information on the ion-atom interaction. Different potentials were used in the simulations, e.g. the Thomas-Fermi-Moliere potential with a modified screening length and a Hartree-Fock potential. It was found that the experimental results can be very well reproduced by use of two potentials that exhibit a significantly different distance dependence, when properly scaled. This leads to the conclusion that care must be taken when deducing a scattering potential from comparison of experimental and simulated azimuthal scans.     

Dependence of cluster ranges on target cohesive energy: Molecular-dynamics study of energetic Au402 cluster impacts

It has long been known that the stopping and ranges of atoms and clusters depends on the projectile-target atom mass ratio. Recently, Carroll et al. [S.J. Carroll, P.D. Nellist, R.E. Palmer, S. Hobday, R. Smith, Phys. Rev. Lett. 84 (2000) 2654] proposed that the stopping of clusters also depends on the cohesive energy of the target. We investigate this dependence using a series of molecular-dynamics simulations, in which we systematically change the target cohesive energy, while keeping all other parameters fixed. We focus on the specific case of Au₄₀₂ cluster impact on van-der-Waals bonded targets. As target, we employ Lennard-Jones materials based on the parameters of Ar, but for which we vary the cohesive energy artificially up to a factor of 20. We show that for small impact energies, E₀ ? 100 eV/atom, the range D depends on the target cohesive energy U, D ∝ U^−β. The exponent β increases with decreasing projectile energy and assumes values up to β = 0.25 for E₀ = 10 eV/atom. For higher impact energies, the cluster range becomes independent of the target cohesive energy. These results have their origin in the so-called ‘clearing-the way’ effect of the heavy Au₄₀₂ cluster; this effect is strongly reduced for E₀ ? 100 eV/atom when projectile fragmentation sets in, and the fragments are stopped independently of each other. These results are relevant for studies of cluster stopping and ranges in soft matter.     

Cesium/xenon co-sputtering at different energies during ToF-SIMS depth profiling

In this paper, ToF-SIMS dual beam depth profiles of H-terminated silicon wafers were performed with cesium primary ions and for different beam energies. The aim of this study was to investigate the influence of the cesium beam energy on the secondary ion yields during ToF-SIMS dual beam depth profiling. For this purpose, both the cesium beam energy and the cesium surface concentration were varied but the analysis conditions were kept identical for all depth profiles (i.e. Ga⁺ at 25 keV, 45°). For each sputter beam energy (i.e. 250 eV, 750 eV and 2000 eV), the cesium surface concentration was varied by diluting the cesium sputtering beam by xenon ions. This technique allows performing ToF-SIMS depth profiles with cesium surface concentration varying from zero (for pure xenon beam) to a maximum value (for pure Cs beam), depending on the bombardment conditions. For all the beam energies, the Si⁺ signals were found to decrease with the increasing cesium coverage and the lower the energy, the faster the decrease. The Cs⁺, the SiCs⁺ and the signals were found to exhibit a maximum for well defined Cs/Xe mixtures, which were found to depend on the secondary ion species and on the beam energy. Moreover, the maxima were found to shift to higher Cs beam content with the increasing energy. This effect is due to the variation of the cesium surface concentration with the varying beam energy. XPS analysis of the Cs/Xe craters and DYNTRIM computer simulations allowed us to convert the cesium beam scale to a cesium surface concentration scale and to interpret our results.     

An attempt to solve Andersen’s puzzle in surface segregation during alloy sputtering

The paper addresses CuPt alloy sputtering by Ar ions and discusses the well-known experiment performed by Andersen et al. 25 years ago, but not yet properly explained. The atomistic (binary-encounter) simulation has been applied to extract the concentrations of surface Cu and Pt atoms from the experimental data. The results of simulations favor segregation of Cu at all bombarding energies studied experimentally (1.25-320 keV). It has been shown that some mysterious results of the experiment can be explained by a reconstruction of the surface undergoing sputtering. For forecasting purposes, the sputtering of CuPt alloy with 0.25-1 keV Ar ions is also considered.     

Cluster-induced sputtering of molecular targets

Using molecular-dynamics simulation, we study the cluster-induced sputtering of a diatomic (O₂) and a triatomic (H₂O) molecular target and compare it to the sputtering of an atomic target (Ar). In all three systems, sputtering occurs by the flow of gasified material out of the spike volume into the vacuum above it. Above a threshold, the sputter yield and also the number of dissociations and reactions increase linearly with the total impact energy. The number of reactions occurring is significantly higher than the number of surviving dissociations. The degrees of freedom of the sputtered molecules are not in thermal equilibrium with each other. While for the diatomic target, the internal energy amounts to only 10-20% of the translational energy, it is 40% for H₂O. The translational energy distributions of sputtered monomers are strongly reduced at high energies due to molecule dissociations.     

Cluster-induced crater formation

Using molecular-dynamics simulation, we study the crater volumes induced by energetic impacts of projectiles containing up to N=1000 atoms. We find that for Lennard-Jones bonded material the crater volume depends solely on the total impact energy E. Above a threshold E_th, the volume rises linearly with E. Similar results are obtained for metallic materials. By scaling the impact energy E to the target cohesive energy U, the crater volumes become independent of the target material. To a first approximation, the crater volume increases in proportion with the available scaled energy, V=aE/U. The proportionality factor a is termed the cratering efficiency and assumes values of around 0.5.     

LEIS: A reliable tool for surface composition analysis?

Different single and polycrystalline surfaces of Cu and Ag have been investigated by time-of-flight low-energy ion scattering using ⁴He⁺ ions. The fraction of ions that survived single scattering from the outermost surface layers, P⁺, was measured in different neutralization regimes. At low energies, a distinct difference in P⁺ was observed for non-equivalent Cu crystal surfaces for projectiles backscattered in a single collision. The polycrystalline surface was found to exhibit similar neutralization behaviour as the (1 1 1) single crystal surface. At higher energies, P⁺ shows a strong dependence on the angular orientation of the single crystal. The impact of these findings on quantitative surface composition analysis by LEIS is discussed.