Observation of increased nanostructure cone growth on Cr due to grazing-incidence Ta seed atom deposition in a He plasma

摘要

Nanostructure cone growth on chromium during helium plasma exposure in the PISCES-A linear plasma device is found to increase with the deposition of heavy tantalum atoms. Tantalum is found to be especially effective at increasing cone growth if the tantalum is incident on the surface at a grazing angle (similar to 5 degrees or less). Tantalum atoms at grazing incidence are observed to be dominantly deposited at the cone tips, consistent with reduced sputtering of the cone tips and increased cone growth. Monte-Carlo simulations are found to be qualitatively consistent with the experimental observation that grazing-incidence heavy atom deposition on a lighter substrate will tend to increase cone growth. Published under license by AIP Publishing.