Ion implantation damage and crystalline-amorphous transition in Ge

Experimental studies on the damage produced in (100) Ge substrates by implantation of Ge⁺ ions at different energies (from 25 to 600 keV), fluences (from 2×10¹³ to 4×10¹⁴ cm⁻²) and temperature (room temperature, RT, or liquid-nitrogen temperature, LN₂T) have been performed by using the Rutherford backscattering spectrometry technique. We demonstrated that the higher damage rate of Ge with respect to Si is due to both the high stopping power of germanium atoms and the low mobility of point defects within the collision cascades. The amorphization of Ge has been modeled by employing the critical damage energy density model in a large range of implantation energies and fluences both at RT and LN₂T. The experimental results for implantation at LN₂T were fitted using a critical damage energy density of ∼1 eV/atom. A fictitious value of ∼5 eV/atom was obtained for the samples implanted at RT, essentially because at RT the damage annihilation plays a non-negligible role against the crystalline–amorphous transition phase. The critical damage energy density model was found to stand also for other ions implanted in crystalline Ge (Ar⁺ and Ga⁺).     

Evolution of ion-irradiated point defect concentration by cluster dynamics simulation

The relationship between ions irradiation and the induced microstructures(point defects, dislocations, clusters, etc.)could be better analyzed and explained by simulation. The mean field rate theory and cluster dynamics are used to simulate the effect of implanted Fe on the point defects concentration quantitatively. It is found that the depth distribution of point defect concentration is relatively gentle than that of damage calculated by SRIM software. Specifically, the damage rate and point defect concentration increase by 1.5 times and 0.6 times from depth of 120 nm to 825 nm, respectively. With the consideration of implanted Fe ions, which effectively act as interstitial atoms at the depth of high ion implantation rate, the vacancy concentration C_v decreases significantly after reaching the peak value, while the interstitial atom concentration C_i increases significantly after decline of the previous stage. At the peak depth of ion implantation, C_v dropped by 86%, and C_i increased by 6.2 times. Therefore, the implanted ions should be considered into the point defects concentration under high dose of heavy ion irradiation, which may help predict the concentration distribution of defect clusters, further analyzing the evolution behavior of solute precipitation.     

RBS and TEM studies of indium phosphide irradiated with 100 keV Au ions

Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) and Rutherford Backscattering (RBS) have been used to observe the spatially isolated disordered zones in InP resulting from 100 keV Au ion irradiation at room temperature. Studies were carried out in interval of irradiation fluences less than lower value of full amorphization fluence. Such a value of fluence, as was established in the studies, can be estimated of order ∼2.5 × 10¹³cm⁻². The accumulation of damage due to the 100 keV Au ion irradiation was described in this material using a composite theoretical model accounting for both homogeneous and heterogeneous amorphization processes.     

Effect of Fe-ion implantation doping on structural and optical properties of CdS thin films

We report on effects of Fe implantation doping-induced changes in structural, optical, morphological, and vibrational properties of cadmium sulfide thin films. Films were implanted with 90 keV Fe⁺ ions at room temperature for a wide range of fluences from 0.1×10¹⁶ to 3.6×10¹⁶ ions cm⁻² (corresponding to 0.38–12.03 at.% of Fe). Glancing angle X-ray diffraction analysis revealed that the implanted Fe atoms tend to supersaturate by occupying the substitutional cationic sites rather than forming metallic clusters or secondary phase precipitates. In addition, Fe doping does not lead to any structural phase transformation although it induces structural disorder and lattice contraction. Optical absorption studies show a reduction in the optical band gap from 2.39 to 2.17 eV with increasing Fe concentration. This is attributed to disorder-induced band tailing in semiconductors and ion-beam-induced grain growth. The strain associated with a lattice contraction is deduced from micro-Raman scattering measurements and is found that size and shape fluctuations of grains, at higher fluences, give rise to inhomogeneity in strain.     

Fabrication of contact electrodes in Si for nanoelectronic devices using ion implantation

We fabricated contact electrodes in Si for nanoelectronic device fabrication using 40 keV As ion implantation. Complete amorphization of the Si surface with contact electrodes using 400 eV Ar ion irradiation at room temperature followed by annealing at 700 °C produced Si surface with negligible SiC crystallites suitable for ultrahigh vacuum scanning tunneling microscope nanolithography. We could locate the implanted and unimplanted regions on Si and fabricate Si dangling bond wires between two contact electrodes, which is the first step for the fabrication of nanoelectronic devices in Si using UHV STM nanolithography.     

In-beam Mössbauer spectroscopy:57Fe in Si and Ge

Fe has been studied in the semiconductors Si and Ge with the Coulomb excitation recoil implantation technique in a wide temperature range. In the case of Fe inSilicon it was found that one third of the implanted atoms land on interstitial sites. The long range diffusion of these atoms could be observed microscopically at temperatures around 600 K. The isomer shift of interstitial Fe in Si was determined. The remaining atoms exhibit a strong quadrupole splitting on disturbed sites. This component seems to relax into a state with higher symmetry above 700 K. InGermanium a similar situation is found. Whereas iron on disturbed sites dominates the spectra, the direct implantation into interstitial sites is also observed below 200 K. At higher temperatures the substitutional position is preferred. The isomer shifts for interstitial and substitutional Fe in Si and in Ge are in good agreement with calculated electron densities.     

聚合物材料的快重离子辐照效应

简要介绍了快重离子辐照损伤的特点,通过与低电离辐射粒子辐照在聚合物材料中产生的效应的类比论述了快重离子辐照在聚合物材料中产生的效应及其研究现状 ,并结合快重离子辐照效应的应用展望了该领域未来的发展.The irradiation effects in polymers induced by swift heavy ions were reviewed in comparison with that induced by low ionization particles based on the characteristics of swift heavy ion irradiations. It is shown that bond breaking and cross linking, gas releasing, amorphization and carbonization of polymers depend strongly on the electronic energy loss. Besides special effects such as alkynes production, can be induced under swift heavy ion irradiation. The perspectives...     

Mn–AlInN: a new diluted magnetic semiconductor

Mn ions have been incorporated into MOCVD grown Al_1−x In _x N/GaN thin films by ion implantation to achieve the room temperature ferromagnetism in the samples. Magnetic characterizations revealed the presence of two ferromagnetic transitions: one has Curie points at ∼260 K and the other above room temperature. In-diffusion of indium caused by the Mn implantation leads to the partition of AlInN epilayer into two diluted magnetic semiconductor sub-layers depending on the Mn concentration. The Curie temperature of 260 K is assigned to the layer having lower concentration, whereas T _c above room temperature is assumed to be associated to the layer having higher Mn concentration.     

Simulation of Ion Paths in the Target Material for the Injection Complex of the BELA Facility

To realize the simulation experiments with the use of two ion beams at the injection complex of the BELA accelerator (Based on ECR ion source Linear Accelerator), it is necessary to determine the energy and irradiation angle of the beam of light ions which will be implanted into the region of radiation damage induced by heavy-ion beam. The depth of light-ion implantation is determined by the energy and kind of particles initiating the damage, as well as by their incidence angle. It is supposed that the incidence direction of heavy ions will coincide with the normal to the specimen surface. In our work, the necessary implantation zone for the iron ion beam with an energy of 3.2 MeV is located at depths of 300–800 nm. The simulation of the hydrogen and helium ion paths in the material of the iron target in the energy range from 150 to 600 keV at the angle to the normal from 0° to 65° is performed. The range of energies and irradiation angles for the hydrogen and helium ions are determined for the implantation into the radiation-induced defect-formation zone.     

Mössbauer study of 57Fe in GaAs and GaP following 57Mn+ implantation

Ion implantation provides a precise method of incorporating dopant atoms in semiconductors, provided lattice damage due to the implantation process can be annealed and the dopant atoms located on regular lattice sites. We have undertaken ⁵⁷Fe emission Mössbauer spectroscopy measurements on GaAs and GaP single crystals following implantation of radioactive ⁵⁷Mn^?+? ions, to study the lattice sites of the implanted ions, the annealing of implantation induced damage and impurity–vacancy complexes formed. The Mössbauer spectra were analyzed with four spectral components: an asymmetric doublet (D1) attributed to Fe atoms in distorted environments due to implantation damage, two single lines, S1 assigned to Fe on substitutional Ga sites, and S2 to Fe on interstitial sites, and a low intensity symmetric doublet (D2) assigned to impurity–vacancy complexes. The variations in the extracted hyperfine parameters of D1 for both materials at high temperatures (T?> 400 K) suggests changes in the immediate environment of the Fe impurity atoms and different bonding mechanism to the Mössbauer probe atom. The results show that the annealing of the radiation induced damage is more prominent in GaAs compared to GaP.     

In-beam M?ssbauer spectroscopy of 57 Mn implanted into lithium hydride

We measured the temperature dependence of ⁵⁷Fe M?ssbauer spectra obtained after ⁵⁷Mn implantation into polycrystalline LiH with an extremely low implantation dose. Density functional calculations suggested that the Fe atoms were predominantly implanted into both Li and H substitutional sites of the LiH crystal.     

离子辐照单晶Si损伤效应的研究

回顾了低能离子注入单晶Si经由核弹性碰撞引起的损伤特征及其常规的研究方法,介绍了快重离子辐照单晶Si经由电子能损引起的损伤特点及研究现状,并对该领域的研究作了展望. The radiation damage in silicon induced by low energy ion implantation was briefly reviewed together with a short introduction to the common techniques in the area. The damage characteristics of swift heavy ion irradiation in silicon and its investigations were introduced with emphasis on the effects induced by processes of electronic energy losses. It is shown that swift heavy ion can induce defects far beyond the projected range and up to 28 MeV/μm the electronic energy ...     

Channeling study of boron implanted silicon: Liquid nitrogen temperature implantation

Silicon samples have been boron implanted at 150 keV at liquid nitrogen temperature to a dose of 3.6 × 10¹⁵/cm². This dose rendered the implanted layer amorphous as viewed by helium ion backscattering. Four kinds of room temperature measurements were made on the same set of samples as a function of the isochronal annealing temperature. The measurements made were the determination of the substitutional boron content by the channeling technique using the B¹¹(p, α) nuclear reaction, observation of the disorder by helium ion backscattering, determination of the carrier concentration by van der Pauw Hall measurements, and the sheet resistivity by four point probe measurements. These measurements are compared with results from samples implanted at room temperature. The carrier concentration correlates well with the substitutional boron content for both room temperature and liquid nitrogen temperature implantations. Following annealing temperatures in the 600 to 800°C range, a much larger percentage of the boron lies on substitutional lattice sites, and therefore the carrier concentration is larger, if the implantation is done at liquid nitrogen temperature rather than at room temperature. Following liquid nitrogen temperature implantation, reverse annealing is observed from 600 to 800°C in the substitutional boron content, carrier concentration and sheet resistivity. The boron is more than 90 per cent substitutional after annealing to 1100°C for both the room temperature and liquid nitrogen temperature implantations. The low temperature implantation produced a buried amorphous layer, and this layer was observed to regrow from both the surface and substrate sides at approximately equal rates.     

Mössbauer spectroscopy at ISOLDE

Applications of radioactive ion beams produced at the ISOLDE facility for Mössbauer studies of probe atoms in solids are presented. Examples are given for a site-selective incorporation on different substitutional sites in compound semiconductors by ion implantation and thermal annealing of the radiation damage resulting from the implantation. The interactions of the probe atoms with lattice defects created in the implantation process have been studied to elucidate likely causes for the site-selective implantation mechanism. The technique has enabled to determine the electronic densities at electrically active substitutional probe atoms, having shallow donor or acceptor states as well as states deeper in the band gap. The results are in good agreement with theoretical results from local density calculations. Methodological aspects of the Mössbauer emission techniques employed at ISOLDE are compared to alternative accelerator based techniques and the consequences of the application of different precursor isotopes to the ⁵⁷Fe Mössbauer isotope are treated in detail for ⁵⁷Fe in silicon. Finally, results obtained for the magnetic hyperfine interactions of 5 sp impurities associated with vacancies in ferromagnetic metals are discussed.     

Nitrogen implantation in GaAs1−xPx (x=0.4; 0.65)

Nitrogen ions were implanted in GaAs_1−xP_x (x=0.4; 0.65) at room temperature at various doses from 5×10¹² cm⁻² to 5×10¹⁵ cm⁻² and annealed at temperatures from 600°C up to 950°C using a sputtered SiO₂ encapsulation to investigate the possibility of creating isoelectronic traps by ion implantation. Photoluminescence and channeling measurements were performed to characterize implanted layers. The effects of damage induced by optically inactive neon ion implantation on photoluminescence spectrum were also investigated. By channeling measurements it was found that damage induced by nitrogen implantation is removed by annealing at 800°C. A nitrogen induced emission intensity comparable to the intensity of band gap emission for unimplanted material was observed for implanted GaAs_0.6P_0.4 after annealing at 850°C, while an enhancement of the emission intensity by a factor of 180 as compared with an unimplanted material was observed for implanted GaAs_0.35P_0.65 after annealing at 950°C. An anomalous diffusion of nitrogen atoms was found for implanted GaAs_0.6P_0.4 after annealing at and above 900°C.     

Impurity lattice location and recovery of structural defects in semiconductors studied by emission channeling

Doping of semiconductors by ion implantation usually requires implantation doses below 10¹³ cm^–2 to obtain typical impurity concentrations of <10¹⁸ cm^–3. The lattice location of impurities as well as the defect recovery after such low dose implantations can be studied using the emission channeling technique. In this technique, single crystals are doped with radioactive probe atoms and the channeling effects of electrons, positrons or -particles emitted from these atoms are measured. We present a quantitative analysis of electron emission channeling measurements after heavy-ion implantation into Si and III–V compound semiconductors by comparison with calculated channeling profiles based on the dynamical theory of electron diffraction. For In atoms implanted into Si, complete substitutionality was found after rapid thermal annealing to 1200 K. For lower annealing temperatures, the observed channeling effects indicate small mean displacements (of about 0.2 Å) of the In atoms from substitutional sites, caused by residual implantation defects. For GaAs, GaP and InP implanted at low temperatures with In or Cd isotopes, pronounced recovery stages around 300, 400 and 350 K, respectively, were observed and substitutional fractions close to 100% were derived after annealing above the stage.     

Structural and phase transformations in Ni3Fe during high-dose ion implantation

The results are given for experimental studies of the structural-phase state formed in the surface and nearsurface layers of a disordered polycrystalline Ni₃Fe alloy during high-dose ion implantation. The studies used Auger electron spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy, x-ray structural analysis, and microhardness measurements. The ion implantation was done using the “Raduga” vacuum arc source with a multicomponent cathode of composition Zr (89.5 wt. %)+C+N+O with an acceleration voltage of 50 kV. The implanted ion dose was varied in the range (6.0·10¹⁶–6.0·10¹⁷) ions/cm². It was established that in the surface layer which is alloyed during ion implantation there is amorphization with simulataneous formation of finely dispersed ZrO₂ particles whose dimensions increase with increasing implanted ion dose; this is accompanied by an increased internal mechanical stress. Beyond the ion-implanted layer a sublayer about 10 μm thick with a high dislocation density is formed (the “long-range action” effect). The results of microhardness measurements correlate with the data from structural studies. Institute of the Physics of Strength and Materials Science, Siberian Section, Russian Academy of Science; Tomsk State University—Architectural-Construction University; and Scientific Research Institute for Nuclear Physics at Tomsk Polytechnic University. Translated from Izvestiya Vysshikh Uchebnykh Zavedenii, Fizika, No. 11, pp. 15–24, November, 1998.     

Analysis of ion implanted diamond

Ion implantation allows controlled introduction of impurities into diamond. A basic problem is to determine if the implanted layers are dominated by substitutional doping or radiation damage effects. Optical and electrical measurements on the implanted diamonds revealed (1) a degradation of the band-gap and sample coloration, (2) no optical absorption levels which would be characteristic of hydrogenic ionization levels, (3) resistivity activation energies of 0.2 to 0.3 eV independent of the ion specie, and (4) no measurable Hall Effect.

Phosphorous implanted layers in diamond were analyzed by means of the channeling technique. It was shown that (1) the diamond retained the implanted phosphorous atoms during a vacuum anneal at 950°C which restored crystalline order, (2) the implanted phosphorous atoms did not assume either substitutional or tetrahedral interstitial sites, (3) the measured projected range for 70 keV phosphorous in diamond of 450 ± 115 Å was consistent with theoretical range calculations and (4) a stable monolayer of oxygen atoms (5.5 × 10¹⁵/cm²) exists on the {111} surface of implanted and annealed diamond. The results of the crystal analysis show that these electrical and optical properties are dominated by radiation damage and not substitutional doping mechanisms.     

Swift heavy ion irradiation induced modification of BiFeO3 thin films prepared by sol-gel method

We report the preparation of multiferroic BiFeO₃ thin films on ITO coated glass substrates through sol-gel spin coating method followed by thermal annealing and their modification by swift heavy ion (SHI) irradiation. X-ray diffraction and Raman spectroscopy studies revealed amorphous nature of the as deposited films. Rhombohedral crystalline phase of BiFeO₃ evolved on annealing the films at 550°C. Both XRD and Raman studies indicated that SHI irradiation by 200 MeV Au ions result in fragmentation of particles and progressive amorphization with increasing irradiation fluence. The average crystallite size estimated from the XRD line width decreased from 38 nm in pristine sample annealed at 550°C to 29 nm on irradiating these films by 200 MeV Au ions at 1 × 10¹¹ ions cm⁻². Complete amorphization of the rhombohedral BiFeO₃ phase occurs at a fluence of 1 × 10¹² ions.cm⁻². Irradiation by another ion (200 MeV Ag) had the similar effect. For both the ions, the electronic energy loss exceeds the threshold electronic energy loss for creation of amorphized latent tracks in BiFeO₃.     

Monitoring by Raman spectroscopy of the damage induced in the wake of energetic ions

This article reports micro‐Raman experiments performed on cross sections of 6H‐SiC crystals irradiated with heavy ions of different energies. The results demonstrate that this technique is very powerful to quantify the damage created in the wake of energetic ions from the surface of samples down to the ion resting position. For slow ions (900‐keV I), ballistic collisions lead to the amorphization of the surface region of samples. For swift ions (36‐MeV W), the surface region remains crystalline and amorphization occurs around the end of the ion path. Moreover, synergistic effects between electronic and nuclear slowing down processes are put forward. The methodology used in this work may be adapted to other materials where radiation effects need to be investigated, provided that the damage created by irradiation is detectable by Raman spectroscopy. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.