Modifications of Alkaline-Earth Fluorides Using Slow Highly Charged Ions

The irradiation with highly energetic (MeV-GeV) heavy ions can lead to the modifications of the properties of different materials. Among the observed effects, the creation of surface nanostructures in different materials were demonstrated. Recently, slow (eV-keV) highly charged ions (HCIs) were successfully utilized for the creation of similar surface nanostructures in various solids. However, HCI exhibits unique features by altering only the top surface layers without modifying the deeper layers, which cannot be avoided for MeV-GeV heavy ions. Based on both the type of the material and ion beam parameters (charge state, kinetic energy, potential energy, etc.), nanostructures of different shapes (pits, caldera-like, hillocks) and sizes were obtained.