Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-r5fsc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T15:23:44.514Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Engineering Morphology of Surfaces by Oblique Angle Etching

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 February 2011

Mehmet F. Cansizoglu  and
Tansel Karabacak
Mehmet F. Cansizoglu
Affiliation:
[email protected], University of Arkansas at Little Rock, Department of Applied Science, 2801 South University Avenue, 72211, AR, 72204, United States, 501 569 80 50, 501 569 80 20
Tansel Karabacak
Affiliation:
[email protected], University of Arkansas at Little Rock, Department of Applied Science, Little Rock, AR, 72204, United States
Get access

Abstract

During a typical chemical etching process growth front morphology generally generates an isotropic rough surface. In this work, we show that it is possible to form a rippled surface morphology through a geometrical self-assembly process using a chemical oblique angle etching technique. We observe in our Monte Carlo simulations that obliquely incident reactive species preferentially etch the hills that are exposed to the beam direction due to the shadowing effect. In addition, species with non-unity sticking (etching) coefficients can be re-emitted from the side walls of the hills and etch the valleys, which at the end can lead to the formation of ripples along the direction of the beam. This mechanism is quite different than the previously reported ripple formation during ion-beam bombarded surfaces where the particles have much higher energies, lower incidence angle and ripple formation is mainly due to physical deformation of the surface. We investigate the ripple formation process in our simulated surfaces for a wide range of etching angle and sticking coefficient values.

Keywords

nanostructureself-assemblymorphology
Type
Research Article
Information
MRS Online Proceedings Library (OPL) , Volume 1059: Symposium KK – Nanoscale Pattern Formation , 2007 , 1059-KK02-04
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2008

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

[1] Zhao, Y.-P., Drotar, J.T., Wang, G.-C., and Lu, T.-M., “Roughening in plasma etch fronts of Si(100)”, Phys.Rev. Lett. 82, 4882 (1999); J.T. Drotar, Y.-P. Zhao, T.-M. Lu, and G.-C. Wang, “Mechanisms for plasma and reactive ion etch-front roughening”, Phys. Rev. B 61, 3012 (2000).Google Scholar
[2] Erlebacher, J. and Aziz, M. J., “Spontaneous Pattern Formation on Ion Bombarded Si(001)”, Phys. Rev.Lett. 82, 2330 (1999); R. Gago, L. V’azquez, R. Cuerno, M. Varela, C. Ballesteros and J. M. Albella,“Nanopatterning of silicon surfaces by low-energy ion-beam sputtering: dependence on the angle of ion incidence”, Nanotechnology 13, 304 (2002).Google Scholar
[3] Ziberi, B., Frost, F., and Rauschenbach, B., “Pattern transitions on Ge surfaces during low-energy ion beam erosion” Appl. Phys. Lett. 88, 173115 (2006)Google Scholar
[4] Ziberi, B., Frost, F., and Rauschenbach, B., “Highly ordered self-organized dot patterns on Si surfaces by low-energy ion-beam erosion” Appl. Phys. Lett. 87, 033113 (2005)Google Scholar
[5] Boyd, G. D., Coldren, L. A., and Storz, F. G., “Directional reactive ion etching at oblique angles”, Appl.Phys. Lett. 36, 583 (1980).Google Scholar
[6] Sigmund, P., “A mechanism of surface micro-roughening by ion bombardment”, J. Mater. Sci. 8, 1545 (1973).Google Scholar
[7] Sage, J. F., Barvosa-Carter, W., Aziz, M. J., “Morphological instability of growth fronts due to stress-induced mobility variations”, Appl. Phys. Lett. 77, 516 (2000).Google Scholar
[8] Aste, T. and Valbusa, U., “Surface instabilities in granular matter and ion-sputtered surfaces”, Physica A 332, 548 (2004).Google Scholar
[9] Umbach, C. C., Headrick, R. L., and Chang, K.-C., “Spontaneous nanoscale corrugation of ion-eroded SiO 2:The role of ion-irradiation-enhanced viscous flow”, Phys. Rev. Lett. 87, 246104 (2001).Google Scholar
[10] Bradley, R. M. and Harper, J. M. E., “Theory of ripple topography induced by ion bombardment”, J. Vac.Sci. Technol. A 6, 2390 (1988); R. Cuerno and A.-L. Barabasi, “Dynamic scaling of ion-sputtered surfaces”, Phys. Rev. Lett. 74, 4746 (1995); M. A. Makeev and A.-L. Barabasi, ““Ion-induced effective surface diffusion in ion sputteringfl, Appl. Phys. Lett. 71, 2800 (1997).Google Scholar