Ion-induced surface ripples in silicon

The morphological evolution of surfaces during ion-beam irradiation has attracted a significant interest due to possibility of the development and the controlling of selforganization in nanostructures. Pattering and texture on nanometer length scale at metal and semiconductor surfaces has become a topic of intense research. In particular the surface and subsurface ripple formation under 40Ar+ ion-beam irradiation of Si (100) crystal has been studied recently. Strong ripple formation has been found for an irradiation energy of 60keV and incident angles around 60degree. During implantation a corrugated surface layer is formed, consisting of a strongly damaged, amorphous near-surface layer followed by a nearly sinusoidal shaped interface towards the crystalline material. In the present work, we investigate the onset and evolution of ripple-formation as function of implantation energy and incidence angle of the ion beam.