2016/11/21 by Engler, Martin, Škereň, Tomáš, Facsko, Stefan
#FOS: Physical sciences #Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall)
paper · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1611.06836
Ion beam irradiation of semiconductors is a method to produce regular periodic nanoscale patterns self-organized on wafer scale. At low temperatures, the surface of semiconductors is typically amorphized by the ion beam. Above a material dependent dynamic recrystallization temperature however, the surface remains crystalline and ion beam irradiation produces regular arrays of faceted ripples on III-V semiconductors. This provides a powerful single-step technique for the production of nanostructures on a large area. On (001) surfaces these ripples are parallel to the [110] direction without any external anisotropy. The origin of this self-alignment was not fully understood until now. A simple experiment exposing the front side and back side of a GaAs(001) wafer to the ion beam clarifies its origin and proves that the ripples align to the Ga dimer rows. As the direction of Ga dimer rows rotates by 90° on the back side, the orientation of the ripples also rotates by 90° to [110]. We discuss the experimental results in view of a model where the pattern formation is driven by creation of vacancies and ad-atoms by the ion beam and their diffusion, which is linked to the direction of dimers on the surface.