Iron assisted ion beam patterning of Si(001) in the crystalline regime

We present ion beam erosion experiments on Si(001) with simultaneous sputter co-deposition of steel at 660 K. At this temperature the sample remains remains within the crystalline regime during ion exposure and pattern formation takes place by phase separation of Si and iron-silicide. After an ion fluence of F ≈ 5.9 × 1021 ions m−2 investigations by atomic force microscopy and scanning electron microscopy identify sponge, segmented wall and pillar patterns with high aspect ratios and heights of up to 200 nm. Grazing incidence X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy reveal the structures to be composed of polycrystalline iron-silicide. The observed pattern formation is compared to the one in the range from 140 K to 440 K under otherwise identical conditions, where a thin amorphous layer forms due to the ion bombardment.