IUVSTA 15th International Vacuum Congress (IVC-15), AVS 48th International Symposium (AVS-48), 11th International Conference on Solid Surfaces (ICSS-11)
    Surface Science Tuesday Sessions
       Session SS3-TuP

Paper SS3-TuP4
Nano-scale Modification of Ionic Surfaces by ESD

Tuesday, October 30, 2001, 5:30 pm, Room 134/135

Session: Adsorption/Desorption Poster Session
Presenter: B. Such, Jagiellonian University, Poland
Authors: B. Such, Jagiellonian University, Poland
J.J. Kolodziej, Jagiellonian University, Poland
P. Czuba, Jagiellonian University, Poland
P. Piatkowski, Jagiellonian University, Poland
P. Struski, Jagiellonian University, Poland
F. Krok, Jagiellonian University, Poland
M. Szymonski, Jagiellonian University, Poland
Correspondent: Click to Email
Surface modification of alkali halide crystals by electron beam was investigated with the use of dynamic force microscope (DFM). It was found that randomly spread rectangular pits of monolayer depth, in the topmost layer of the crystals, were formed during irradiation. Growth and coalescence of the pits led to almost layer-by-layer desorption mode. Average size and density of the pits could be changed by varying parameters of an electron beam and surface temperature leading to controlled nano-modification of the surface. Moreover, by comparison of DFM and mass spectroscopy data we were able to establish that the surface stepdensity, changing in time, controlled the desorption process. The new model of electron-stimulated desorption (ESD) of alkali halides was proposed to explain observed behavior, based on the idea of existence of two kinds of F-centers in the crystal: ground state (immobile) and excited (mobile) ones.