Surface modification of gallium phosphide caused by swift (200Â MeV) silver ions

In the present work, the effects of swift silver ion irradiation in crystalline gallium phosphide samples with various fluences ranging between 1 × 1011 and 2 × 1013 ions cm−2 have been described. Atomic force microscopy images of the samples irradiated with different fluences showed the existence of hillocks at the surface, the diameter and density of these clusters were found to be depend on the ion fluence. As the ion fluence increased (⩾1 × 1013 ions cm−2), the big size hillocks having arbitrary shapes were observed due to outflow of the molten material to the sample surface or defect induced swelling of track areas accumulated during the track overlapping. Phonon confinement model employed to first order Raman scattering from longitudinal optical phonon mode revealed the decrease in phonon coherence length from 73.0 nm to 23.7 nm with the increase in ion fluence from 1 × 1012 to 2 × 1013 ion cm−2.