摘要
Focused ion beam(FIB)processing with low-energy ions has become a standard technique for the manipulation of nanostructures.Many underlying ion beam effects that deviate from conventional high-energy ion irradiation of bulk systems are considered today;however,ion channeling with its consequence of significant deeper penetration depth has been only theoretically investigated in this regime.We present here an experimental approach to determine the channeling of low-energy ions in crystalline nanoparticles by measuring the sputter yield derived from scanning electron microscopy(SEM)images taken after irradiation under various incident ion angles.Channeling maps of 30 and 20 keV Ga+ions in Ag nanocubes have been identified and fit well with the theory.Indeed,channeling has a significant impact on the transport of energetic ions in crystals due to the large critical angle at low ion energies,thus being relevant for any FIB-application.Consequently,the obtained sputter yield clearly differs from amorphous materials;therefore,it is recommended not to rely only on,e.g.,ion distribution depths predicted by standard Monte-Carlo(MC)algorithms for amorphous materials.
基金
We thank the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft(DFG)for financial support through the project Ro1198/22-1“Energy induced nanoparticle substrate interactions”.
