Craters Produced on Metals by Single Ion Impacts

The surface is a major perturbation on displacement cascades resulting from ion impacts. Ion impacts on dense materials result in nanometer sized craters on materials with densities greater than 7.3 g/cm3. Although stable when the irradiation is interrupted, single ion impacts can modify or annihilate existing craters. Single ion impacts can extrude material from the specimen. Flow from the melt zone of cascades is responsible for the observed changes.