Evolution of Ar+-damaged graphite surface during annealing as investigated by scanning probe microscopy

Abstract

The surface evolution of highly oriented pyrolytic graphite irradiated with ${\mathrm{Ar}}^{+}$ ions of 1.0 keV at doses between ${\text{5×10}}^{11}$ and ${\text{1×10}}^{13}\hspace{0.17em}{\mathrm{ions/cm}}^2$ during annealing was investigated by scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM) in the tapping mode. Hillocks were observed by both STM and AFM after ion irradiation, where the height of a hillock measured by STM was larger than that measured by AFM. The ion-irradiated surface was recovered in three stages during annealing: the first stage at 473–873 K, the second stage at 873–1473 K, and the third stage at 1473–1873 K. In the first stage, many of the ion-induced hillocks recovered rapidly and irregular domelike protrusions were formed due to both the recombination of the mobile interstitial clusters with the immobile vacancies and the aggregation of interstitial clusters. In the second stage, the hillocks recovered slightly and domelike protrusions aggregated to larger domelike protrusions. In the third stage, the hillocks recovered completely and domelike protrusions changed from irregular shapes to regular circles with monatomic step height of graphite due to the change from irregular carbon interstitial clusters to complete extraplane in graphite. Hexagonal hollows were also formed and became larger circular hollows above 1623 K with monatomic step height of graphite due to the vacancy clusters formed by the migration of vacancies and the following collapse of the neighboring layers in graphite.