Surface diffusion of tungsten adatoms induced by low-energy bombardment with He atoms

ABSTRACTUsing low-temperature field ion microscope techniques, we studied at the atomic level the elementary events of radiation-induced surface diffusion of tungsten adatoms on the ideally pristine surface. The experiments on surface-damage formation and adatom displacements have been performed in situ with a source of neutral helium atoms with an energy of 5 keV. It was demonstrated that the low-energy He atomic bombardment at grazing incidence was able to induce a substantial surface mobility of adatoms. Most of the radiation-induced adatom displacements were oriented along the direction of irradiation. The long impact-induced jumps of adatoms, spanning more than a nearest-neighbor distance, were revealed. Performed molecular dynamics simulations reproduce the general experimental trends and conclusions.