• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.55-63
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• 2003

A 150 kV gas cluster ion accelerator was constructed and the cluster sizes of $CO_2$ and $N_2O$ gases were measured using time-of-flight mast spectrometry. Through isolated cluster ion impact on a HOPG, hillock with 1 nm height and a few tenth m in diameter were found to be formed by an atomic force microscope. When monomer ion beams were irradiated on the hillocks existed on a ITO surface, they became sharper and the surface became rougher. But they changed into round-shaped ones by cluster ion irradiation and the surface became smooth after the irradiation of $5\times10^{-14}\textrm{cm}^2$ at 25 kV. As the cluster ion dose was varied, the change of surface morphology and roughness of Si was examined. At the lower dose, the density of hillocks and surface roughness were increased, called surface embossment process. And then after the critical dose at which the area of the formed hillocks equals to the unirradiated area, the sputtering from the hillocks was predominantly evolved, and dislocated atoms were diffused and filled among the valleys, called surface sputtering and smoothing process. At the higher ion dose, the surface consisting of loosely bounded atoms was effectively sputtered into the depth and etching phenomenon was happened, called surface etching process.