CMD30 FisMat2023 - Submission - View

Abstract title: Surface modification of metal nanolayers by highly charged xenon ions
Submitting author: Ilona Stabrawa
Affiliation: Jan Kochanowski University
Affiliation Address: Żeromskiego 5, 25-369 Kielce
Country: Poland
Other authors and affiliations: Ilona Stabrawa, Dariusz Banaś, Aldona Kubala-Kukuś, Łukasz Jabłoński, Paweł Jagodziński, Daniel Sobota, Karol Szary, Marek Pajek (Institute of Physics, Jan Kochanowski University, Kielce, Poland), Ewaryst Mendyk, Krzysztof Skrzypiec (Faculty of Chemistry, M. Curie-Skłodowska University, Lublin, Poland ), Michał Borysiewicz (Łukasiewicz Research Network-Institute of Microelectronics and Photonics, Warsaw, Poland), Natasa N. Nedeljković (Faculty of Physics, University of Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia), Milena D. Majkić (Faculty of Technical Sciences, University of Priština-Kosovska Mitrovica, Kosovska Mitrovica, Serbia)
Abstract
In recent years, many experiments have been devoted to the study of nanostructures formed as a result of the interaction of highly charged ions (HCl) with solids [1,2], nanolayers of metals such as titanium and gold [3,4] and two-dimensional materials such as MoS2 [5] or graphene [6]. Accelerated HCI stores its energy in the form of the kinetic energy Ekin and the potential energy Epot, which is related to the charge state of the ion. When HCI collides with a surface, its energy is deposited into the solid, which can lead to permanent surface modifications. The fundamental mechanism of formation of these modifications is still under investigation.
This work presents the most recent experimental studies aimed at understanding of formation of nanostructures on the surfaces of metal nanolayers as a result of their irradiation with highly charged Xeq+ ions (where q is an ion charge). The nanolayers of various metals (Ti, Pd, Au) were prepared by the metal evaporation on silicon Si (100) substrates. The nanolayer were irradiated at the Kielce EBIS facility of the Jan Kochanowski University (Kielce, Poland), under high vacuum conditions. Before and after irradiation the nanolayer surfaces were investigated using the atomic probe microscopy. As the result, well pronounced modifications of the nanolayer surfaces in the form of craters and hillocks were observed. Systematic analysis of the nanostructure sizes (diameter on the surface and depth) allowed us to determine the influence of the deposited kinetic and the neutralization energy on the size of the obtained nanostructures. The experimental results were compared with predictions of the inelastic thermal spike (i-TS) model, molecular dynamics (MD) simulations,  cohesive energy model (CEM) and with the experimental data obtained for slow single ionized Xe+. Using the CEM we showed how the process of energy deposition occurs during the impact of single highly charged xenon ions [7].

The functioning of the EBIS facility is supported by Polish Ministry of Education and Science (project 28/489259/SPUB/SP/2021). N. N. Nedeljković and M. D. Majkić are grateful for the support of the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development of the Republic of Serbia (projects 171016, 171029).

[1] F. Aumayr et al., J. Phys.: Condens. Matter 23 393001 (2011)
[2] W. M. Moslem et al., Results in Physics 46 106297 (2023)
[3] I. Stabrawa et al., Nucl. Instrum. Methods Phys. Res. B 408 235-240 (2017)
[4] I. Stabrawa et al., Vacuum 210 111860 (2023)
[5] A. Niggas et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 129 086802 (2022)
[6] E. Gruber et al., Nature Communications 7 13948 (2016)
[7] N. N. Nedeljković and M. D. Majkić, Eur. Phys. J. D 77 (2023)