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 during the first minutes of sputtering evolves into an anisotropic ripple pattern for longer sputtering time. These results provide a new basis for further steps in the theoretical description of the morphology evolution during ion beam sputtering.