Fluidity and morphological stability of an amorphous thin film with radiation-induced defect kinetics

It is common to model ion-irradiated amorphous thin films as if they were highly viscous fluids. In such models, one is frequently concerned with the ion-enhanced fluidity, a measure of the ability of the free interface to relax surface energy. Motivated by usual fluid dynamics problems, the ion-enhanced fluidity is near-universally treated as a constant throughout the amorphous layer. However, for an irradiated thin film, the fluidity is ultimately caused by radiation-induced defect kinetics within the film, leading to regions with greater or lesser fluidity, and sensitive dependence on ion energy, species, flux, irradiation angle, temperature, and other experimental parameters. Here, we develop and analyze a model of radiation-induced defect kinetics coupled to the continuum equations of a viscous thin film. Using realistic parameter values, we show that defect kinetics can meaningfully alter theoretical predictions of surface relaxation and ion-enhanced fluidity. Implications for aligning theoretical and experimental work, especially for surface nano-patterning of silicon induced by low-energy argon irradiation, are discussed.

Tyler P. Evans, Eden Heyen · 2025