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I. Gebeshuber, S. Cernusca, F. Aumayr, Hp. Winter:
"AFM search for slow MCI-produced nanodefects on atomically clean monocrystalline insulator surfaces";
Nuclear Instruments & Methods in Physics Research Section B, 205 (2003), 751 - 757.

We have investigated by means of atomic force microscopy (AFM) single impacts of slow singly and multiply
charged Ar ions on atomically clean insulator surfaces for LiF(1 0 0), SiO2(0 001) a-quartz, muscovite mica and sapphire
c-plane Al2O3(0 0 0 1) crystals. The target samples have been continuously kept under UHV conditions by
transferring them in a transportable UHV vault from the vacuum chamber for ion bombardment to the AFM instrument.
Slow ion bombardment was accompanied by low-energy electron .ooding to compensate for possible target
surface charge-up. For Al2O3 clear ion-charge dependent surface defects in lateral and vertical directions give evidence
for potential sputtering, which until now has only been demonstrated with thin polycrystalline insulator .lms.
2003 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
PACS: 79.20.Rf; 68.37.Ps; 68.35.Dv
Keywords: Nanodefects; Insulators; HCI; In situ AFM; Monocrystalline insulator surfaces; Potential sputtering

http://aleph.ub.tuwien.ac.at/F?base=tuw01&func=find-c&ccl_term=AC04405680