Chemical Reactions induced by Ion Bombardment and Post Annealing

LUCILA CRISTINA AND JULIO FERRÓN

Cuernavaca, México

Conferencia; Fourth San Luis Conference and Summer School and PASI Fellowships; 2007

The study and development of new materials is at present one of the most dynamic research areas. These materials present structures, that are usually absent in nature and can be obtained only through kinetic limitations, which stop them from reaching a state of minimum energy. In the field of ion generated nanostructures, it has been recently proved that the system N/Cu (100) generates self-assembled nanostructures [1] which may be the basis of ultradense magnetic storage devices. Although molecular nitrogen does not adsorb on Cu surfaces, up to half a monolayer of N atoms can be adsorbed at 300 K on Cu (100) if the gas is atomized by using an ion or an electron gun. Thus, for instance, Leibsle et al. [2] reported that a c(2x2) low-energy electron-diffraction (LEED) pattern was observed when a clean copper surface was exposed to activated nitrogen produced by an ion gun and annealed up to 670 K. In the present work we study chemical reactions induced by ionic bombardment of metals by non-reactive gases. The N+ bombarded and annealed Cu samples were characterized by means of Auger electron spectroscopy (AES) and electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS).