In-situ investigation of swift-heavy-ion shaping of micron- and submicron structures


In-situ investigation of swift-heavy-ion shaping of micron- and submicron structures

Ferhati, R.; Fritzsche, M.; Bolse, W.

Materials modification by swift heavy ion (SHI) irradiation has become a field of investigation in the early 80’s, when Klaumünzer and Schumacher observed that irradiation of metallic glasses with swift heavy ions of some MeV/amu results in anistropic plastic deformation (shrinking along and expansion perpendicular to the beam direction). Since such a behaviour is reminiscent of treating a metal sheet with a hammer, it is often called hammering effect”. Trinkaus has theoretically explained this phenomenon by the local rapid solid-liquid-solid phase transition, which is caused by the passage of a SHI through the material with sufficient ionisation cross-section (electronic stopping power). This transient melting and rapid resolidification (within some tens of ps) of a cylinder (ion track) of typically 10 nm in diameter along the ion trajectory creates tensile stresses along and compressive stresses perpendicular to the ion track axis. As we have shown before, these induced stresses may result in surface instabilities of thin oxide films, causing self-organised restructuring into lamellae- and pillar-like patterns on a nm-scale.
Here we will report about the continuation of our recently started exploration of the potential use of the hammering effect for shaping and modifying micron and sub-micron structures by swift heavy ion irradiation. In addition to the results on pre-structured NiO-films presented in the preceeding annual report we will now discuss the results of our recent experiment on pre-structured ZnO-films on oxidized Si-wafers and compare them with the previous study.

Related publications

  • Contribution to external collection
    Prof. Dr. Peter Michler, Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Bolse: Annual Report 2010, Institut für Halbleiteroptik und funktionale Grenzflächen, Universität Stuttgart, Stuttgart: Universität Stuttgart, 2011, 48-49

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Publ.-Id: 15670