Author/Authors :
M. Cuccureddu، نويسنده , , F. and Murphy، نويسنده , , S. and Shvets، نويسنده , , I.V. and Porcu، نويسنده , , M. and Zandbergen، نويسنده , , H.W. and Sidorov، نويسنده , , N.S. and Bozhko، نويسنده , , S.I.، نويسنده ,
Abstract :
A comparative study of the morphological surface evolution of c-plane (0001) α-Al2O3 upon annealing was investigated for non-miscut (i.e. substrates with 0° nominal miscut) and vicinal substrates. The samples were annealed in air at 1100 °C for different durations of time. Although non-miscut samples do not show any step bunching at this temperature, miscut substrates show a regular and ordered stepped morphology with clearly defined terraces as revealed by Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) and Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) image analysis. The surface morphology presents a number of coalescence points, i.e. locations where two steps merge and form a multiple step. Close to the coalescence points, parallel steps change direction to different low index direction.
Keywords :
Aluminum oxide , Sapphire , Step formation and bunching , Surface structure and morphology , atomic force microscopy
