Surface morphology of c-plane sapphire (α-alumina) produced by high temperature anneal

A comparative study of the morphological surface evolution of c-plane (0001) α-Al 2O 3 upon annealing was investigated for non-miscut (i.e. substrates with 0° nominal miscut) and vicinal substrates. The samples were annealed in air at 1100 °C for different durations of time. Although non-miscut samp...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Surface science 2010-08, Vol.604 (15), p.1294-1299
Main Authors: Cuccureddu, F., Murphy, S., Shvets, I.V., Porcu, M., Zandbergen, H.W., Sidorov, N.S., Bozhko, S.I.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Aluminum oxide
Annealing
Atomic force microscopy
Coalescence
Coalescing
Evolution
Morphology
Sapphire
Step formation and bunching
Stepped
Surface structure and morphology
Transmission electron microscopy
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Summary:A comparative study of the morphological surface evolution of c-plane (0001) α-Al 2O 3 upon annealing was investigated for non-miscut (i.e. substrates with 0° nominal miscut) and vicinal substrates. The samples were annealed in air at 1100 °C for different durations of time. Although non-miscut samples do not show any step bunching at this temperature, miscut substrates show a regular and ordered stepped morphology with clearly defined terraces as revealed by Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) and Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) image analysis. The surface morphology presents a number of coalescence points, i.e. locations where two steps merge and form a multiple step. Close to the coalescence points, parallel steps change direction to different low index direction.
ISSN:0039-6028
1879-2758
DOI:10.1016/j.susc.2010.04.017