An SEM and STM investigation of surface smoothing in 130 MeV Si-irradiated metglass MG2705M

Abstract

Metglass MG2705M foils of about 17 m thickness were irradiated at 90 K by 130 MeV 28Si ions, up to a fluence of 1:154 1016 ions cm−2. The surface modifications induced by irradiation have been examined by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and scanning tunnelling microscopy (STM). It has been observed that smoothing of the sample surface is evident in both SEM and STM micrographs. The SEM pictures show a decrease in the heights of the ‘hills’ and filling up of the ‘valleys’ on micrometre length scales. The STM pictures, on the other hand, show smoothing of scratchlike surface disorders at nanometre length scales. However, the electronic energy loss Se, of 5:75 keV nm−1, does not lead to detectable track diameters, in agreement with the existing results. The observations have been attributed to a large electronic energy deposition due to high fluence, and a subsequent local shear relaxation of the near surface atoms. The theory of shear flow mechanism has been extended further to explain the results.