Real-time x-ray studies of Mo-seeded Si nanodot formation during ion bombardment -: art. no. 163104

The formation of self-organized Si nanostructures induced by Mo seeding during normal incidence Ar+ ion bombardment at room temperature is reported. Silicon surfaces without Mo seeding develop only power-law roughness during 1000 eV ion bombardment at normal incidence, in agreement with scaling theory expectations of surface roughening. However, supplying Mo atoms to the surface during ion bombardment seeds the development of highly correlated, nanoscale structures (dots) that are typically 3 nm high with a spatial wavelength of approximately 30 nm. With time, these saturate and further surface roughening is dominated by the growth of long-wavelength corrugations. (C) 2005 American Institute of Physics.