Two-layer behaviour during low-energy ion ablation of CdTe(001) studied by in situ X-ray diffraction and by Monte Carlo simulation

The evolution of the CdTe(001) surface during ion bombardment was studied by grazing incidence X-ray diffraction (GIXD) and by Monte Carlo simulation. A layer-by-layer removal was observed at 270 °C which evolves to a step-flow mode above 300 °C. An anisotropic relaxation of the surface lattice parameter and a long-distance correlation between islands along the [1 − 1 0] direction were observed during sputtering.