The metal impurity assisted ion beam technology has shown its uniqueness and effectiveness in the formation and precise control of nanostructures on the surface of materials. Hence, the investigation in this area is vital. The morphology evolution of self-organized nanostructures induced by Fe co-deposition assisted Ar⁺ ion beam sputtering at a different distance from the impurity target was investigated on sapphire, using atomic force microscopy (AFM) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). We also investigated the role of metal impurities on sapphire ripple formation. Experiments were carried out at an oblique angle of incidence 65°with constant ion beam current density 487 μA/cm² and the erosion duration of 60 min at room temperature (20 °C). The introduction of Fe impurity increased the longitudinal height and roughness of the surface nanostructures. Moreover, the amounts of Fe deposited on the surface decreased with increasing distance, and the morphology of the smooth sapphire surface demonstrated a strong distance dependence. Differences in surface morphology were attributed to changes in metal impurity concentration. With an increase of impurity target distance, island-like structures gradually evolved into continuous ripples. At the same time, the orderliness of nanostructures was enhanced, the longitudinal height gradually decreased, while the spatial frequency was unchanged. In addition, there were very few metal impurities on the etched sample. During the ion beam sputtering process, island-like structures promoted the growth of ripples but destroyed their orderliness.

中文翻译：

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金属杂质辅助离子束诱导的蓝宝石表面纳米结构

金属杂质辅助离子束技术在材料表面上纳米结构的形成和精确控制方面显示出其独特性和有效性。因此，这方面的调查至关重要。使用原子力显微镜（AFM）和X射线光电子能谱（XPS）在蓝宝石上研究了在与杂质靶不同距离的情况下，Fe共沉积辅助Ar ⁺离子束溅射在自蓝宝石上诱导的自组织纳米结构的形貌演变。我们还研究了金属杂质对蓝宝石波纹形成的作用。在斜入射角为65°且离子束电流密度恒定为487μA/ cm ^{2的条件下进行实验}在室温（20°C）下腐蚀时间为60分钟。Fe杂质的引入增加了表面纳米结构的纵向高度和粗糙度。而且，沉积在表面上的铁的量随距离的增加而减少，并且光滑的蓝宝石表面的形态表现出强烈的距离依赖性。表面形态的差异归因于金属杂质浓度的变化。随着杂质靶距的增加，岛状结构逐渐演变为连续的波纹。同时，纳米结构的有序性增强，纵向高度逐渐减小，而空间频率不变。另外，在蚀刻的样品上几乎没有金属杂质。在离子束溅射过程中，