Regensburg 2004 – scientific programme

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DS: Dünne Schichten

DS 22: Postersitzung

DS 22.15: Poster

Tuesday, March 9, 2004, 14:30–17:00, Poster B

Smoothing of Si surface by low-energy ion beam erosion — •Frank Frost, Bashkim Ziberi, and Bernd Rauschenbach — Leibniz-Institut für Oberflächenmodifizierung e. V., Permoserstraße 15, D-04318 Leipzig, Germany

Low-energy ion beam erosion is a versatile tool for surface polishing down to 0.1 nm root mean square (rms) roughness level showing a great promise for large-area surface processing, which is essential for many advanced optical applications.

Exemplarily, the surface smoothing of Si surfaces by Ar⁺ ion beams (ion energy ≤ 2000 eV) was analyzed. Atomic force microscopy has been used to systematically investigate the topography evolution of the surfaces with respect to different process parameters (ion energy, ion incidence angle, erosion time, sample rotation). From the AFM measurements the surface roughness was quantitatively characterized by the first order (rms roughness) and second order (power spectral density - PSD) statistical quantities. Based on the time evolution of these roughness parameters the relevant surface relaxation mechanisms (ion-induced viscous flow, surface erosion smoothing) responsible for surface smoothing have been discussed. Additionally, it is shown that surface smoothing by ion-induced viscous flow can operate on different length scales.