Early stage of ripple formation on Ge(001) surfaces under near-normal ion beam sputtering
We present a study of the early stage of ripple formation on Ge(001) surfaces irradiated by a 1 keV Xe+ ion beam at room temperature and near-normal incidence. A combination of a grazing incidence x-ray scattering technique and atomic force microscopy allowed us to observe a variation of the symmetry of the surface nanopattern upon increase of the ion fluence. The isotropic dot pattern formed duri