Cratering induced by slow highly charged ions on ultrathin PMMA films

Highly charged ions are a well-known tool for the nanostructuring of surfaces. We report on the thickness dependence of nanostructures produced by single 260 keV Xe38+ ions on ultrathin poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) films (1 nm to 60 nm) deposited onto Si substrates. The nanostructures induced by...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Thomaz, Raquel Silva, Ernst, Philipp, Grande, Pedro Luis, Schleberger, M., Papaleo, Ricardo Meurer
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2022
País:Brasil
Institución:Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS)
Repositorio:Repositório Institucional da UFRGS
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:www.lume.ufrgs.br:10183/257893
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/10183/257893
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Nanoestruturas
Filmes finos
Íons
Polimetil metacrilato
Slow highly charged ions
Nanostructures
Radiation effects
Single-ion impacts
Polymer thin films
PMMA
Descripción
Sumario:Highly charged ions are a well-known tool for the nanostructuring of surfaces. We report on the thickness dependence of nanostructures produced by single 260 keV Xe38+ ions on ultrathin poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) films (1 nm to 60 nm) deposited onto Si substrates. The nanostructures induced by slow highly charged ions are rimless craters with a diameter of around 15 nm, which are roughly independent of the thickness of the films down to layers of about 2 nm. The crater depth and thus the overall crater volume are, however, thickness-dependent, decreasing in size in films thinner than ~25 nm. Our findings indicate that although the potential energy of the highly charged ions is the predominant source of deposited energy, the depth of the excited material contributing to crater formation is much larger than the neutralization depth of the ions, which occurs in the first nanometer of the solid at the projectile velocity employed here. This suggests synergism between kinetic and potential-driven processes in nanostructure formation in PMMA.