engleski

Comparison of AFM and GISAXS capabilities for surface swift heavy ion track analysis

Irradiation of flat solid surfaces by swift heavy ions under the grazing incidence angle can result in the formation of surface ion tracks. These ion tracks can be observed directly using atomic force microscopy (AFM) [1-3]. However, to extract statistical information (average ion track length, length distribution etc.), structural investigations of this type are very time consuming. In the present work we apply grazing incidence small angle X-ray scattering (GISAXS) for the structural analysis of surface swift heavy ion tracks and demonstrate its capabilities on a wide range of investigated materials (SrTiO3, TiO2, quartz and a-SiO2, amorphous Ge+SiO2 and Ge+ITO thin films). Compared to AFM, GISAXS allows short measuring times with an excellent statistics. Possible applications of surface patterning of Ge+ITO thin films using swift heavy ions, with respect to the modifications of transparent Ge+ITO electrodes for photovoltaics, will be discussed as well. [1] A. Akcöltekin et al., Nature Nanotechnology 2, 290 (2007). [2] M. Karlušić et al., New J. Phys. 12, 043009 (2010). [3] S. Akcöltekin et al., Nucl. Instrum. Meth. B 267, 1386 (2009).

ion track; swift heavy ion; AFM; GISAXS

nije evidentirano