Decay of nanoripples on Au(111) studied by He atom scattering

Gianangelo Bracco and Davide Cavanna
Phys. Rev. B 76, 033411 – Published 18 July 2007

Abstract

The morphology of the nanostructured Au(111) surface has been investigated in the temperature range between 170 and 400K by means of thermal energy He atom scattering. The gold surface has been irradiated with 3keV Ar+ ions along the azimuthal direction ⟨110⟩ at grazing incidence (about 75°). After sputtering at temperatures greater than 180K, a well-defined diffraction pattern has been measured, which is consistent with the development of a ripple structure with ridges oriented along the incoming ion-beam direction. The evolution with time of the diffraction pattern has been followed at different crystal temperatures TC in the range 280400K. The results show that the rippled structure is stable up to 350K. Instead, between 370 and 390K, the structure changes with time with a rate that depends on temperature, and the ripple wavelength is constant. The decay is well described by an exponential function, and the estimated activation energy is about 0.85eV. At 400K, the data show an increase of the ripple wavelength and this suggests that shorter wavelength modes, which contribute to the ripple profile, decay faster than longer ones with a shift toward greater values of the average ripple wavelength.

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  • Received 9 February 2007

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.76.033411

©2007 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

Gianangelo Bracco and Davide Cavanna

  • CNR-IMEM and CNR-INFM, Dipartimento di Fisica, Via Dodecaneso 33, 16146 Genova, Italy

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Issue

Vol. 76, Iss. 3 — 15 July 2007

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