Surface and crystalline analysis of aluminum oxide single crystal treated by quasistationary compression plasma flow

Material such as aluminum oxide (Al2O3) is important in electronics industry. On the other hand, plasma is one of the most efficient and sophisticated tools for materials processing. In this work a treatment of Al2O3 (0001) surface by quasistationary compression plasma flow (CPF) is analyzed in detail. Offline metrology was performed using dielectric measurements, X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) equipped with energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) and atomic force microscopy (AFM). Oriented low-dimensional periodic structures are occurred for the plasma treated Al2O3 single crystal. In the paper is reported that these oriented ripple-shaped structures contain a higher percentage of oxygen than the surrounding crystal surface. This could be the framework for usage of CPF as a tool in manufacturing of surfaces containing the highly organized oxygen-rich structures.

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► The effects of treatment of Al2O3 (0001) surface by CPF are analyzed.
► Oriented low-dimensional structures are occurred for the treated Al2O3 crystal.
► The dimension of these ripples are 1 μm and the distance between them is about 10 μm.
► The ripple-shaped structures contain a higher percentage of oxygen than the surroundings.
► Results could promote CPF as a tool for producing organized oxygen-rich structures.