Evolution of subsurface nanocavities in copper under argon bombardment and annealing

► Vacancy–argon complexes are formed in copper under Ar irradiation at room temperature. ► Nanocavities appears due to diffusion of vacancy–argon complexes at high temperatures. ► Long high temperature annealing leads to decomposition of nanocavities and Ar losses. The experimental and theoretical s...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Applied surface science 2013-02, Vol.267, p.128-131
Main Authors: Kulikov, D.V., Kurnosikov, O., Kharlamov, V.S., Trushin, Yu.V.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Cobalt
Computer simulation
Copper
Nanocavity
Scanning tunneling microscopy
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Summary:► Vacancy–argon complexes are formed in copper under Ar irradiation at room temperature. ► Nanocavities appears due to diffusion of vacancy–argon complexes at high temperatures. ► Long high temperature annealing leads to decomposition of nanocavities and Ar losses. The experimental and theoretical studies of evolution of nanocavities in argon-irradiated copper under annealing are presented. The subsurface argon-filled nanocavities are formed during a short annealing at a temperature around 1000K by migration and interaction of complexes of the simplest defects created by argon irradiation at room temperature. A long-time annealing at a temperature above 1075K leads to decomposition of nanocavities and desorption of argon from the sample. Using the X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy, valuable data sets including the density of nanocavities and their size and depth distribution are obtained. A theoretical model describing the nucleation and evolution of nanocavities is developed. Computer simulations based on this model show that the nanocavities grow at elevated temperatures by absorption of argon–vacancy complexes formed during the ion irradiation. By comparison the calculations with experimental results, the migration energy of these complexes is estimated to be around 2.5–2.75eV. Also, the value of dissociation energy of a complex, consisting of two vacancies and two argon atoms, is found to be equal to approximately 1.10–1.18eV. The calculation of concentration of nanocavities at different annealing conditions reveals a satisfactory agreement with the experimental observations.
ISSN:0169-4332
1873-5584
DOI:10.1016/j.apsusc.2012.08.035