Energy dependence of He-ion-induced tungsten nanofuzz formation at non-normal incidence angles

Abstract We report measurements of He-ion-beam induced tungsten nanofuzz formation for normal and non-normal incidence angles in the energy range 218 eV–10 keV. At 218 eV, the fuzz tendrils are fine and grow randomly away from the interface in the direction of the surface normal. Above 480 eV, the fuzz tendrils become increasingly coarser, and their growth direction is in the direction of the incident beam. This change is attributed to the ion-induced displacement damage which becomes effective once the displacement damage threshold energy is exceeded, and produces additional near-surface trapping sites in those portions of the surface that are in direct line of sight of the incident beam which can nucleate He clusters and initiate bubble growth. Once the surface morphology roughens sufficiently for shadowing to occur, the subsequent fuzz growth occurs preferentially toward the incident ion beam. Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations were carried out to determine the displacement damage threshold energies in the near-surface region along the three major crystallographic directions. It was found that the tungsten bulk values are established within the first 2–4 atomic layers below the tungsten surface. SRIM simulations based on the MD energy thresholds indicate that vacancy damage production in the near-surface region quickly dominates over sputtering in near-surface lattice modification effects as the energy above the damage threshold increases.