Ion beam-induced nanostructuring of InSb(0 0 1) surfaces studied with atomic force microscopy F. Krok a, * , J.J. Kolodziej b , B. Such b , P. Piatkowski b , M. Szymonski a,b a Regional Laboratory of Physicochemical Analyses and Structural Research, Jagiellonian University, Ingardena 3, 30-060 Krakow, Poland b Institute of Physics, Jagiellonian University, Reymonta 4, 30-059 Krakow, Poland Abstract Morphology evolution of the InSb(0 0 1) surface due to ion bombardment has been studied with atomic force mi- croscopy in UHV. The initially clean surface, composed of large, atomically flat terraces has been modified with a 4 keV Ar þ ion beam incident at oblique angle. During the ion irradiation, the evolution of surface morphological features from small dots to the stage of development of long wires has been observed. The wires with the width of 50–70 nm and the length up to few microns are parallel to the projection of the ion beam on the irradiated surface and are incor- porated into a flat amorphous substrate. It has been found that the surface relaxation process due to the surface diffusion of adparticles promotes the observed surface modification. Based on the concept of interplay between a roughing (erosion) and a smoothing (diffusion) process the observed surface morphologies have been explained. Ó 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. PACS: 61.16.C; 61.72.V Keywords: Nanostructures; Ion-induced surface modification; Ion-induced surface diffusion; A III B V semiconductor surfaces 1. Introduction Sputtering by ion bombardment has been often used for surface cleaning and analysis. However, ion-induced processes could also lead to surface composition and topography modification result- ing in segregation and self-organization on the surface, and frequently to development of well- defined periodic structures on the irradiated sur- faces. Since the ion sputtering is atomic by its nature, some (or all) characteristic dimensions of the surface structures could easily be of the order of a nanometer. Consequently, sputter-erosion might be used for producing of nanostructures with many potential applications. It is of current interest to understand those processes and study their dependence on such factors as an incident ion energy, its angle of incident, the target temperature and the sample material composition and crystal- lographic structure (see [1] for review). On ion-bombarded A III B V compound semicon- ductor surfaces formation of two types of struc- tures has been reported so far. Facsko et al. [2,3] observed formation of nanodots on GaSb and InSb * Corresponding author. Tel.: +48-12-264-2525; fax: +48-12- 264-2520. E-mail address: krok@castor.if.uj.edu.pl (F. Krok). 0168-583X/$ - see front matter Ó 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/S0168-583X(03)01455-1 Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research B 212 (2003) 264–269 www.elsevier.com/locate/nimb