Spontaneously Emergent Ripples—Pattern Formation by Ion Beam Sputter-Etching andWind—

Tomoyoshi Motohiro^1,2*, Kei Obinata¹ and Yasuhiko Takeda¹

¹Toyota Central R&D Laboratories, Inc., Nagakute, Aichi 480-1192, Japan
²Toyota Technological Institute, 2-12-1, Hisakata, Tempaku, Nagoya 468-8511, Japan
*E-mail address: motohiro@mosk.tytlabs.co.jp

(Received December 19, 2010; Accepted April 12, 2011)

Abstract. Spontaneously emergent ripples on fused silica surface under homogeneous oblique incidence of Ar ions accelerated up to 4.25 keV are reintroduced together with increasing recent related studies in theories and experiments for variety of combinations of ions and materials. The features of the ripple formation are discussed with an interest in similarity with ripples formed on sand by the wind.

Keywords: Ripples, Ion Beam Sputter-Etching, Wind, Pattern Formation