ABSTRACT
Normally, self-organized surface nanopatterns produced by ion
beam sputtering (IBS) result in nanodot or nanoripplemorphologies
depending on geometrical considerations. However, recent studies
show that additional contributions should be considered when
multielemental targets are involved due to the eventual develop-
ment of a modulation between the surface composition and its
morphology. This fact can be extended to targets irradiated with the
presence of intentional or accidental impurities (mainly metals) on
the surface that, for example, may be responsible for triggering the
pattern formation at (near) normal ion incidence onmonoelemental
semiconductors such as silicon. In this chapter, we deepen in the
role of simultaneous metal incorporation in pattern formation on
Si(100) surfaces by normal-incidence IBS with 1 keV Ar+. We show that the level of metal incorporation can additionally be used to
tune the pattern morphology and, in particular, selectively produce
unconventional nanohole patterns formetal levels higher than those
present in the standard nanodot pattern counterpart. We examine
the parameter window for the production of different morphologies
to verify the morphological and compositional correlation. Finally,
we highlight relevant mechanisms that could drive to such pattern
selectivity.
