C. E. Sosolik

We present a broadly applicable in situ method for profiling ion beams using electrostatic deflectors and a Faraday cup. By deconvolving the detector geometry from the resulting current profiles, spatially resolved absolute current density profiles are obtained. We demonstrate this method’s efficacy with low-density highly charged ion beams (specifically, Ne8+). Details on experimental design are provided as well as the link to the deconvolution routine on GitHub.

We report on nano-patterning with multiply charged argon ions that facilitates the self-assembly of epitaxial Cu3Si nanostructures. In particular, we show that the impact sites formed from the dissipation of the incident ion potential energy for Arq+ (q=1,4,8) modulate the growth density and growth rate for silicide nanostructures. The observed nanostructure densities were found to vary as q∼0.9 for strain-driven, shape transition-type growth, and the observed growth rates far exceeded those obtained under thermal conditions. Relating the growth density to an underlying sputter yield for SiO2, we find a dependence on the ion potential energy relatively similar to that observed by others for Iq+ ions incident on a thermally grown oxide.