Sputtering of GaAs under oblique Cs bombardment: A simulation study

Sputtering of GaAs under oblique 2–10 keV Cs ion bombardment is studied by means of computer simulation as applied to the experimental data by Verdeil et al. published recently. Special attention is given to the angular distribution of sputtered atoms in the steady-state limit and to the relevant concentrations of surface Ga and As atoms, S_Ga and S_As, respectively. The best-fit values of S_Ga and S_As found in simulations favor segregation of As. A very pronounced effect of resputtering of atoms deposited on a collector of sputtered matter is noted. For forecasting purposes, the sputtering of GaAs under oblique bombardment with 0.1–1 keV Cs ions is also shortly considered.     

Sputtering of thin benzene films by large noble gas clusters

Molecular dynamics computer simulations have been employed to investigate the sputtering process of a benzene (C₆H₆) monolayer deposited on Ag{1 1 1} induced by an impact of slow clusters composed of large number of noble gas atoms. The sputtering yield, surface modifications, and the kinetic energy distributions of ejected species have been analyzed as a function of the cluster size and the binding energy of benzene to the Ag substrate. It is shown that high- and low-energy components can be identified in the kinetic energy distributions of ejected molecules. The mechanistic analysis of calculated trajectories reveals that high-energy molecules are emitted by direct interaction with projectile atoms that are backreflected from the metal substrate. Most of the molecules are ejected by this process. Low-energy molecules are predominantly emitted by a recovering action of the substrate deformed by the impact of a massive cluster. The increase of the binding energy leads to attenuation of both high- and low-energy ejection channels. However, low-energy ejection is particularly sensitive to the variation of this parameter. The area of the molecular overlayer sputtered by the projectile impact is large and increases with the cluster size and the kinetic energy of the projectile. Also the size and the shape of this area are sensitive to the changes of the binding energy. The radius of the sputtered region decreases, and its shape changes from almost circular to a ring-like zone when the binding energy is increased. Some predictions about the perspectives of the application of large clusters in the organic secondary ion mass spectrometry are discussed.     

Interaction of 〈1 0 0〉 loops with Carbon atoms and 〈1 0 0〉 dislocations in BCC Fe: An atomistic study

We apply atomistic simulations using the so called ‘metallic-covalent bonding’ interatomic model for the Fe–C system to study mobility of 〈1 0 0〉 interstitial dislocation loops, known to form in Fe and Fe-based ferritic alloys under irradiation, and their interaction with Carbon atoms. Carbon atoms represent an effective trap for the 〈1 0 0〉 loops with a binding energy of the order of 1 eV. The mobility of the loops is studied using the dislocation – loop drag model. From this model the activation parameters are identified and discussed.     

High energy Si ions bombardment effects on the properties of nano-layers of SiO2/SiO2 + Ag

We grew 50 periodic SiO₂/SiO₂ + Ag multi-layers by electron beam deposition technique. The co-deposited SiO₂ + Ag layers are 7.26 nm, SiO₂ buffer layers are 4 nm, and total thickness of film was determined as 563 nm. We measured the thickness of the layers using in situ thickness monitoring during deposition, and optical interferometry afterwards. The concentration and distribution of Ag in SiO₂ were determined using Rutherford backscattering spectrometry (RBS). In order to calculate the dimensionless figure of merit, ZT, the electrical conductivity, thermal conductivity and the Seebeck coefficient of the layered structure were measured at room temperature before and after bombardment with 5 MeV Si ions. The energy of the Si ions was chosen such that the ions are stopped deep inside the silicon substrate and only electronic energy due to ionization is deposited in the layered structure. Optical absorption (OA) spectra were taken in the range 200–900 nm to monitor the Ag nanocluster formation in the thin layers.     

Emission of large molecules from methane by ion bombardment

Condensed layers ot methane at 20 K have been bombarded by 6–8 keV Ar⁺, He⁺ and H₂⁺ ions. Mass spectra and Kinetic energy distributions of neutral species sputtered from these layers have been measured. We have found sputtered species with masses up to 72 amu and thus with at least 5 carbon atoms. In addition to this an involatile residue was formed. Analysis by pyrolysis mass spectrometry showed this residue to contain species with masses up to at least 170 amu which therefore contain at least 12 carbon atoms. The kinetic energy distributions of sputtered methane molecules lie between those of a Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution and a collision cascade. Higher values are reached for Ar⁺ than for the light ions. From these observations we conclude: for both light and heavy ions radicals are formed, which combine to new molecules. These exothermic reactions produce heat which causes desorption. The high energy tail for bombardment with argon ions shows that part of the sputtering is caused by momentum transfer.     

Thermal and irradiation induced interdiffusion in Fe3O4/MgO(0 0 1) thin film

The interface reactions in an epitaxial 10 nm-thick Fe₃O₄/MgO(0 0 1) film were investigated by using Rutherford Backscattering spectrometry (RBS), channeling (RBS-C) and X-ray reflectometry (XRR). The as-grown film had a good crystallinity indicated by the minimum yield and the half-angle value for Fe, respectively, χ_min(Fe) = 22% and ψ_1/2(Fe) = 0.62°. Annealing the films under partial argon pressure up to 600 °C led to a large enhancement of Mg out-diffusion into the film forming a wustite-type phase, but the total layer thickness did not change much. Ion irradiation of the film by 1 MeV Ar ion beam caused a strong Fe ion mixing resulting in a large interfacial zone with a thickness of 23 nm.     

MD simulation of atomic displacements in pure metals and metallic bilayers during low energy ion bombardment at 0 K

Molecular Dynamics (MD) simulations of 100 eV Ar ion bombardment of (1 0 0) Ni and Al crystals, of bilayer crystals consisting of an Al (or Ni) layer on a (1 0 0) Ni (or Al) substrate, as well as pseudo-isotope bilayer crystals have been performed at 0 K using tight-binding potentials. For these systems sputtering yields, energy deposition with depth, atomic relocations, production of ad-atoms, depth distributions of vacancies and interstitials per ion impact were studied for times up to 7 ps. We observed that both the mean square displacement of atoms and defect production (vacancies, interstitials and ad-atoms) are larger in pure Al than in pure Ni. In addition, we observed for the bilayer systems Al/Ni and Ni/Al a high number of the near surface atomic relocations; especially ion bombardment induced exchange processes between atoms of the 1st (Al or Ni) and of the 2nd (substrate) layer. Potential energy calculations indicate that such relocations between the 1st and the 2nd layer are in both bilayer crystals energetically favourable. Both Al/Ni and Ni/Al bilayers show considerable higher production of ad-atoms as the pure Al and Ni targets. Typically ad-atoms are from the first layer, but in the Ni/Al bilayer system we found a substantial amount of Al ad-atoms from the 2nd layer (first Al layer). They contribute more to the ad-atom number than 1st layer Ni atoms. The mean square displacement of atoms in Al/Ni and Ni/Al crystals increases considerably during the thermal stages of the cascade evolution while it is almost constant in the case of the pure Al and Ni. Finally we observed that the maximum kinetic energies of atoms in the cascade volume after 4 ps are lower in the Ni and Al/Ni crystals than in Al and Ni/Al crystals, reflecting the lower cohesive energy of Al as compared to Ni. Calculations with pseudo-isotope bilayer crystals were performed to elucidate the influence of mass or potential on the observed effects.     

Low-energy ion scattering and sputtering at grazing ion bombardment of clean and oxygen covered Ag(1 1 0) surface

The ion scattering and sputtering processes at low energy grazing N⁺ and Ne⁺ ion bombardment of clean and oxygen covered Ag(1 1 0) surface have been investigated by computer simulation in the binary collision approximation.

The spatial, angular and energy distributions of scattered, sputtered particles and desorbed molecules of oxygen as well as their yields versus the angle of incidence have been calculated. In these distributions the some characteristic peaks were observed and analysed. It was found that an adsorption layer plays a role of the additional surface barrier, i.e. it reflects leaving target atoms back to crystal. The azimuth angular dependencies of Ag sputtering yield and non-dissociative O₂ desorption yield at grazing incidence have been calculated. It was shown that these dependencies correlate the crystal orientation.     

Boron suppression with a gas ionization chamber at very low energies (E < 1 MeV)

Efficient boron suppression for precise ¹⁰Be measurements with AMS is crucial. The performance of ΔE ? E_res gas ionization chambers is also very important for isobar suppression at low beam energies (<1 MeV). A boron suppression of 6–7 orders of magnitude is achievable with the ETH ΔE ? E_res gas ionization in the standard operational mode (readout of ΔE and E_res electrodes). Some physical effects such as pulse height defect or the energy focusing effect within a ΔE section will be discussed, emphasizing ¹⁰Be measurements below 1 MeV. Additionally the potential of silicon nitride membranes as passive energy degraders in front of the detector is demonstrated.     

A mixed P1–DP0 diffusion theory for planar geometry

A variational analysis is used to derive a mixed P₁–DP₀ (P₁ spherical harmonics–double P₀ spherical harmonics) angular approximation to the time-independent monoenergetic neutron transport equation in one-dimensional planar geometry. This mixed angular approximation contains a space-dependent weight factor α(x) that controls the local angular approximation used at a spatial point x: α(x) = 1 yields the standard P₁ (diffusion) approximation, α(x) = 0 gives the standard DP₀ approximation, and 0 < α(x) < 1 produces a mixed P₁–DP₀ angular approximation. The diffusion equation obtained differs from the standard P₁ diffusion equation only in the definition of the diffusion coefficient. Standard Marshak incident angular flux boundary conditions are also obtained via the variational analysis. We examine the use of this mixed angular approximation coupled with the standard P₁ approximation to more accurately treat material interfaces and vacuum boundaries. We propose a simple but effective functional form for the weight factor α(x) that removes the need for the user to specify the value. Numerical results from several test problems are presented to demonstrate that significant improvements in accuracy can be obtained using this method with essentially no computational penalty.     

On the maxwellian + 1/E + fission-spectrum weighting function of NJOY 99.90 system’s GROUPR module

It is not possible to generate correct multigroup nuclear data with the GROUPR module of the NJOY system version 99.90 when the Maxwellian + 1/E + fission-spectrum weighting function is specified. It was detected that the calculation stops in the energy group that contains the break point between 1/E weighting and fission-spectrum weighting. A possible solution to bypass the error is proposed.     

High efficiency gettering of Au in Si(1 1 1) by MeV C implantation

A study of MeV C implantation induced effects on gettering of Au (2.2 × 10¹⁵ cm⁻²), implanted into Si(1 1 1), has been carried out using Rutherford backscattering spectrometry. A 2 h anneal in Ar at 850 °C has been found to result in a gettering efficiency close to 55%. It increases beyond 80% with a further 2 h anneal at 900 °C. The C dose (0.3–1.5 × 10¹⁶ cm⁻²) dependence of Au gettering is also presented and discussed.     

Comparison of 41Ca analysis on 0.5 MV and 5 MV-AMS systems

A comparative study was made between the compact AMS system at the PSI/ETH Laboratory of Ion Beam Physics in Zurich with 0.5 MV terminal voltage and the 5 MV-AMS system at the Scottish Universities Environmental Research Centre (SUERC), Glasgow. Overall 34 urinary samples with ⁴¹Ca/⁴⁰Ca ratios in the range from 4 × 10^?11 to 3 × 10^?10 were processed to CaF₂ and aliquots of the same material were measured on both instruments.Measurements on the compact AMS system were performed in charge state 3+ achieving a transmission of 4% at 1.7 MeV beam energy. Under these conditions a suppression of the interference ⁴¹K is virtually impossible. However, samples with an excess of potassium can be identified by a shift of the ⁴¹Ca/⁴¹K peak in the ΔE ? E histogram of the gas ionization detector employed and a criterion for data rejection can be defined. An overall precision of ～4% and a ⁴¹Ca/⁴⁰Ca background level of 5 × 10^?12 have been reached.For studies with higher demands on the detection limit AMS systems like the one at SUERC are attractive: in charge state 5+ and using a gas stripper beam energy of 27 MeV, a transmission of 5%, a ⁴¹K suppression factor of ～500 and a ⁴¹Ca/⁴⁰Ca background level of 3 × 10^?14 are achieved.We demonstrate that both systems are well suited for large-scale ⁴¹Ca biomedical applications.     

Investigation of the projectile atomic number influence to the total sputtering yield in the keV energy region

The non-monotonous dependence of the total sputtering yield on the projectile atomic number, which is unexpected in the frame of the Sigmund linear cascade theory, is investigated using Monte Carlo simulations (program SRIM 2003). This effect is studied on the example of aluminum sputtering by six different projectiles (N, Ne, Al, Ar, Kr and Xe) at normal incidence. The incident projectile energy is 2 keV. Investigation consists of the analyses of ASI distributions of sputtered atoms as well as of nuclear energy loss depth distributions of projectiles with fixed number of ejected atoms. The results show that the non-monotonous behavior of Y(Z) is due to the ability of projectiles somewhat lighter than aluminum to efficiently eject large number of atoms by formation of collision cascades in the subsurface region which are directed towards the surface. On the other hand, ions that are heavier or significantly lighter than aluminum cannot form this type of cascades - the heavier ions cannot transfer a lot of energy to recoils in a primary knock-on collision that will move towards the surface, while significantly lighter ions transfer the energy too deep into the target.     

Ion beam synthesis of SiC by C implantation into SIMOX(1 1 1)

We report the conversion of a 65 nm Si(1 1 1) overlayer of a SIMOX(1 1 1) into 30–45 nm SiC by 40 keV carbon implantation into it. High temperature implantation (600 °C) through a SiO₂ cap, 1250 °C post-implantation annealing under Ar ambient (with 1% of O₂), and etching are the base for the present synthesis. Sequential C implantations (fluence steps of about 5 × 10¹⁶ cm^?2), followed by 1250 °C annealing, has allowed to estimate the minimum C fluence to reach the stoichiometric composition as ～2.3 ×  10¹⁷ cm^?2. Rutherford Backscattering Spectrometry was employed to measure layer composition evolution. A two-sublayers structure is observed in the synthesized SiC, being the superficial one richer in Si. Transmission electron microscopy has shown that a single-step implantation up to the same minimum fluence results in better structural quality. For a much higher C fluence (4 × 10¹⁷ cm^?2), a whole stoichiometric layer is obtained, with reduction of structural quality.     

New results on the neutron-induced fission cross-section of 231Pa for incident neutron energies En = 0.8–3.5 MeV

New results on the neutron-induced fission cross-section of ²³¹Pa in the incident neutron energy range between E_n = 0.8 and 3.5 MeV are presented. The individual cross-section data are obtained within an uncertainty of less than 5% and meets the accuracy required by the IAEA in the summary report of the consultants’ meeting on “Assessment of Nuclear Data Needs for Thorium and other Advanced Cycles” from 1999. With the new data the hitherto existing large spread between evaluated data files may be removed.     

Sputtering from spherical Au clusters by energetic atom bombardment

Using molecular-dynamics simulation, we study the effect of 100 keV Au atom bombardment of spherical Au clusters (radius R=40 Å), containing 15,784 atoms. Results range from projectile transmission with only few atoms sputtered to more or less complete cluster disintegration. During disintegration, besides major fragments of the original cluster, monatomics and a large number of clusters with sizes up to 100 atoms, and even beyond, are created. Angular and energy spectra of sputtered atoms show features of both collisional sputtering and evaporation: particle emission is isotropic with an additional contribution of preferential emission along [1 1 0] directions. Energy spectra show the high-energy E⁻² fall-off typical of linear-cascade sputtering plus an additional low-energy thermal component.     

The density effects in sputtering of amorphous materials

The effects of the target atomic density on sputtering of amorphous targets under 1 keV Ar ion bombardment have been investigated using binary-collision simulation. Attention was given to the sputtering yield, and the angular and energy distributions of sputtered atoms. A large set of targets, from ³Li to ⁹²U was considered and three interatomic potentials were applied. It has been shown that both the sputtering yield and the angular and energy distributions of sputtered atoms are undoubtedly dependent on the target atomic density. Results are compared with the data from the literature.     

Determination of differential cross-sections for the natK(p, p0) and 39K(p, α0) reactions in the backscattering geometry

In the present work, new, differential cross-section values are presented for the ^natK(p, p₀) reaction in the energy range E_lab = 3000–5000 keV (with an energy step of 25 keV) and for detector angles between 140° and 170° (with an angular step of 10°). A qualitative discussion of the observed cross-section variations through the influence of strong, closely spaced resonances in the p + ³⁹K system is also presented. Information has also been extracted concerning the ³⁹K(p,α₀) reaction for E_lab = 4000–5000 keV in the same angular range. As a result, more than ～500 data points will soon be available to the scientific community through IBANDL (Ion Beam Analysis Nuclear Data Library – http://www-nds.iaea.org/ibandl/) and could thus be incorporated in widely used IBA algorithms (e.g. SIMNRA, WINDF, etc.) for potassium depth profiling at relatively high proton beam energies.     

Au implantation into various types of silicate glasses

The implantation of gold ions into three types of silicate glass was studied. The energies of the implanted Au⁺ ions were 1701 keV, and the fluences of the ions were 1 × 10¹⁴, 1 × 10¹⁵, 3 × 10¹⁵ and 1 × 10¹⁶ cm^?2. The as-implanted samples were annealed in air at two temperatures (400 and 600 °C). The Au concentration depth profiles were investigated using Rutherford Backscattering Spectrometry (RBS) and compared to simulated profiles from the SRIM. The structural changes were studied by UV–vis absorption spectroscopy. The obtained mono-mode waveguides were characterised using Dark Mode Spectroscopy at 671 nm to yield information on the refractive index changes. The results showed interesting differences depending on the type of glass and the post-implantation treatment. The obtained data were evaluated on the basis of the structure of the glass matrix, and the relations between the structural changes, waveguide properties and absorption, which are important for photonics applications, were formulated.