High energy Xe+ ion beam induced ripple structures on silicon

Ion beam bombardment on semiconductor surfaces leads to well-defined morphological structures in the nanoscale range. Due to the impact of ions a self-organized wave-like surface structure develops. Ion bombardment causes an amorphization of a surface-adjacent layer of several nanometers and creates a periodical structure on the surface as well as at the amorphous-crystalline interface. We investigate the dependence of the periodicity on the crystallography of (100) silicon bombarded with Xe+ ions, the ion beam incidence and the azimutal angle of the sample surface. So far we found that the ripple wavelength scales with the ion energy in a range of 5 to 70 keV. In order to understand the initiation of the ripple formation we also ask the question which role the initial surface structure plays. Therefore we investigate the formation of ripples on pre-structured and rough surfaces such as wafers with an intentional miscut. Therefore, we not only introduce a certain initial roughness but also vary the orientation of the (100) lattice plane in respect to the surface. We distinguish between ion beam induced surface effects (sputter erosion) and the influence of the crystalline Si lattice (strain) on the ripple formation