AES and EELS tools associated to TRIM simulation methods to study nanostructures on III-V semiconductor surfaces

At low energy (300 eV), the Ar+ ions bombardment lead to the formation of small nanodots on the InP and the InSb surface compounds. We used the Auger electron spectroscopy (AES) and electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS) to detect the presence of these features. However, these techniques alone do not allow us to determine with accuracy their disturbed dimension related to the height and periodicity. For this reason, we combine these spectroscopy methods with the TRIM (transport and range of ions in matter), SRIM (Stopping and Range of Ion in Matter) and Sigmund simulation methods to show the mechanism of interaction between the argon ions and the III-V compounds cited above and determine the dimension of disturbed areas as a function of Ar + energy during 30 min.