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Updated: Jun 3, 2026

In Situ SIMS and IR Spectroscopy of Well-defined Surfaces Prepared by Soft Landing of Mass-selected Ions
Published on: June 16, 2014
Mass redistribution causes the structural richness of ion-irradiated surfaces
Charbel S Madi1, Eitan Anzenberg, Karl F Ludwig
1Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Cambridge Massachusetts 02138, USA.
Abstract:
We show that the "sputter patterning" topographical instability is determined by the effects of ion impact-induced prompt atomic redistribution and that erosion--the consensus predominant cause--is essentially irrelevant. We use grazing incidence small angle x-ray scattering to measure in situ the damping of noise or its amplification into patterns via the linear dispersion relation. A model based on the effects of impact-induced redistribution of those atoms that are not sputtered away explains both the observed ultrasmoothening at low angles from normal incidence and the instability at higher angles.
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