S. Van Dijken et al., Kinetic physical etching for versatile novel design of well ordered self-affine nanogrooves, PHYS REV L, 86(20), 2001, pp. 4608-4611
Ion bombardment at extreme grazing incidence leads to the formation of rema
rkably well ordered, one to two atomic layer deep, parallel grooves on a cu
(001) surface. These self-organized grooves are oriented parallel to the io
n's plane of incidence and their period can be controlled between similar t
o4 and 15 nm. We have identified two distinct temperature regimes: Between
about 200 and 300 K the substrate temperature controls the period, while be
low 200 to about 150 K the ion energy does. The groove separation distribut
ion shows distinct self-affine character. The physical origin of the novel
nanostructures is discussed.