A novel fabrication technique for crystallite growth on a (100) InAs surface utilizing focused ion beams

• DOI: 10.1016/j.nimb.2003.12.080
• Publication Date: 2004-01-13T10:25:34Z
• Authors: A. Lugstein; M. Weil; B. Basnar; C. Tomastik; E. Bertagnolli
• Keywords: Auger electron spectroscopy

Abstract We report on an experimental study of the morphological and chemical evolution of the (1 0 0) InAs surface under 50 keV focused Ga + ion beam exposure using atomic force microscopy (AFM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Auger electron spectroscopy (AES). For ion fluences higher than 1.25 × 10 16 ions/cm 2 the formation of crystallite like microprotrusions on a (1 0 0) InAs surface has been observed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The size of the microprotrusions increases with increasing ion fluence and achieves ranges from 30 nm to 1.5 μm while the surface density decreases. Combining XRD and AES results proved that focused ion beam (FIB) bombardment of the InAs surface leads to the formation of nearly pure indium crystallites obviously due to a preferential loss of arsenic atoms during FIB sputtering.