Temporal evolution of the chemical structure during the pattern transfer by ion-beam sputtering

Highlights: • Chemical analyses of the individual nano structures simultaneously with the investigation of their morphological evolution were performed. • Degradation of the transferred pattern starts before the overlayer is fully removed. • The chemical analysis reveals the severe reduction of the sputter yield of the material forming the overlayer near the interface due to the compound formation, requesting caution in the practice of the pattern transfer. - Abstract: Ru films patterned by ion-beam sputtering (IBS) serve as sacrificial masks for the transfer of the patterns to Si(1 0 0) and metallic glass substrates by continued IBS. Under the same sputter condition, however, both bare substrates remain featureless. Chemical analyses of the individual nano structures simultaneously with the investigation of their morphological evolution reveal that the pattern transfer, despite its apparent success, suffers from premature degradation before the mask is fully removed by IBS. Moreover, the residue of the mask or Ru atoms stubbornly remains near the surface, resulting in unintended doping or alloying of both patterned substrates