Formation of High-quality Aluminum Oxide under Ion Beam Irradiation
Abstract
In this work we used the radiation–induced technique of selective association of atoms (SAA) to create the aluminum oxide layer on the surface of metallic Al under oxygen ion beam irradiation. Optimal conditions for carrying out the radiation-induced aluminum oxidation process were established to minimize the target sputtering. An aluminum oxide layer of 20 nm thickness was obtained after irradiation of aluminum target with oxygen ions with 0.2 keV energy up to a dose of ∼2.6 ⋅ 1018 ions/cm2 at room temperature. HRTEM and EELS techniques were used to characterize the chemical compositional changes after irradiation. It was found that aluminum oxide layer after irradiation contained an excessive amount (∼10 at.%) of implanted oxygen.
Keywords: ion beam irradiation, aluminum thin films, EELS, HRTEM
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