ATOMIC-COLLISIONS IN SURFACE-CHEMISTRY AND FILM DEPOSITION

Low-energy, mass-selected ion beams provide access to an interesting, important, and poorly understood regime of ion-surface interactions. Ions in the range of 1 to 100 eV span the range from chemical bond energies to lattice penetration energies. Such hyperthermal reactants can be used to induce chemical reactions with significant activation barriers, select reaction mechanism pathways, and deposit unique thin films. This review provides a brief overview of the surface chemistry and film deposition that is achievable through the use of hyperthermal beams. Detailed examples are provided for the reactions of C+, O+, and CO+ ions with Ni(111) and for deposition of diamondlike films using C+ beams.