Comparison of Se and Te clusters produced by ion bombardment

Center for Microelectronics and Nanotechnology, Department of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Rzeszow University, Poland

^* Corresponding author: malgorzata.trzyna@gmail.com

Published online: 15 December 2016

Abstract

Nanostructures based on tellurium and selenium are materials used as components for the manufacturing topological insulators. Therefore it is crucial to precisely characterize these materials. In this work the emission of selenium and tellurium cluster ions, sputtered by Bi⁺ primary ion guns, was investigated by using Time-of-Flight Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry (TOF SIMS). It has been found that Bi_xTe_x and Bi_xSe_x clusters appear in addition to Se_x and Te_x clusters in the mass range up to ~ 1300 m/z. Local maxima or minima (magic numbers) are observed in the ion intensity versus a number of atoms per cluster for both positive and negative ions spectra for all types of clusters and primary ions used. These extrema can be attributed to different yield and stability of certain clusters but also to fragmentation of high-mass clusters.