Role of initial surface roughness on ion induced surface morphology

We report here the influence of initial surface roughness on the development of ion induced Si surface morphology. Surfaces of different initial roughness have been generated chemically and bombarded by 16.7keV O2+ ions at an oblique angle. It is observed that surface roughness enhances the initial perturbation, which aids to form the ion induced regular nanostructures at an ion fluence typically one to two orders of magnitude less than that are required to produce the same structures on an initially flat surface. This observation also explores the role of initial surface perturbation on the initiation of curvature dependent sputtering.