Low energy (5–20 eV) atomic beam-surface interactions have been studied using a molecular dynamics technique. Silicon atoms are directed at an unreconstructed (111) silicon substrate either perpendicular to the surface or at grazing angles of incidence from 10–35°. The Si-Si interaction is treated using an empirical many-body silicon potential so that the effects of covalent bonding are included. At general beam orientations relative to the surface, low energy atoms are rapidly adsorbed at the surface, whereas at higher energies they either bounce off the surface or penetrate into the substrate. However, when the surface component of beam momentum is parallel to a (100) symmetry direction, Si atoms, under certain conditions, are found to channel along the surface rows, resulting in very little local excitation of the surface geometry and only gradual energy loss. The vertical momentum is carried away by substrate lattice vibrations, and the particle is guided along the surface by interaction with the atoms making up the surface ‘half-channels’. This surface channeling effect offers considerable promise for delicate control of the beam-induced annealing/growth of non-equilibrium surface geometries, and thus for high-quality growth at low temperatures.

Thin amorphous layers in crystalline Si and GaAs substates have been irradiated at selected temperatures with 1.5 MeV Ne+ ions to induce either epitaxial crystallization or amorphization. In Si, such irradiation can induce complete epitaxial crystallization of a 1000 A surface amorphous layer for temperatures typically >200°C whereas, at significantly lower temperatures, layer-by-layer amorphization results. Although epitaxial crystallization can also be stimulated in GaAs by ion irradiation at temperatures >65°C, the process is non-linear with ion dose and results in poor quality crystal growth for amorphous layers greater than a few hundred Angstroms in thickness. Layer-by-layer amorphization has not been observed in GaAs.

The transition from ion induced epitaxial crystallization to planar amorphization of a preexisting amorphous layer in silicon has been investigated. The conditions for dynamic equilibrium at the transition were determined for different ion species as a function of dose rate and temperature. The critical dose rate for equilibrium varies exponentially with 1/T, exhibiting an activation energy of ∼1.2 eV. Furthermore, for different ions, the critical dose rate is inversely proportional to the square of the linear displacement density created by individual ions. This second order defect production process and the activation energy, which is characteristic of divacancy dissociation, suggest that the accumulation of divacancies at the amorphous/crystalline interface controls the balance between crystallization and amorphization.

Using high dose implantation of 200 keV Co ions followed by high temperature annealing, we have created buried layers of CoSi2 in crystalline Si of both (100) and (111) orientations. For a dose of 3 × 1017 Co/cm2, the layer that forms is ∼1100Å thick and the overlying Si is ∼600Å thick. A lower dose of 2 × 1017 Co/cm2 yields a thinner layer, 700Å thick, under 1200Å of crystalline Si. Rutherford Backscattering and channeling analysis of the layers shows that they are aligned with the substrate (χmin of the Co as low as 6.4%.) and TEM inspection of the (100) CoSi2/Si interfaces shows that they are abrupt and epitaxial (with occasional small facets). Moreover, electrical characterization of these layers yields resistance ratios that are better than epitaxial CoSi2 films grown by more conventional UHV methods.

We have systematically studied the formation of transition-metal thin films by high dose (up to 1018 ions/cm2) implantation of Ti, V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni and Nb at room temperature and 350°C into Si <100>.

For implantation at 350°C, our results, as obtained by Rutherford backscattering, X-ray diffractometry and Read Camera measurements, indicate that one can categorize these metals into two groups:

1. 1. a chromium group which includes V, Cr, Nb, Ti and Mn. Metals V, Cr and Nb form compounds (VSi2, CrSi2. NbSi2) with a hexagonal structure of the CrSi2 type whereas Ti and Mn both form compounds (Ti5Si3, Mn5Si3) with a hexagonal structure of the Mn5Si2 type.

2. 2. an iron group which includes Fe, Co and Ni. These metals form compounds (FeSi, CoSi, NiSi) with a cubic structure of the FeSi type.

In this paper the experimental results for Cr and Fe implantation at room temperature and 350°C will be discussed.

Artificial amorphous Si/Ge multilayers of equiatomic average composition with a repeat length around 60 Å have been prepared by ion beam sputtering. Implantation with 29Si led to a decrease in the intensity of the X-ray diffraction peaks arising from the composition modulation, which could be used for an accurate measurement of the implantation-induced mixing distance. Subsequent annealing showed no difference between the interdiffusivity in an implanted and unimplanted sample.

Ion beam enhanced grain growth has been investigated in thin films of Ge. Grain boundary mobilities are greatly enhanced over their thermal equilibrium values and exhibit a very weak temperature dependence. We propose that defects which are generated by the ion beam at or near the grain boundary are responsible for the boundary mobility enhancement. Films of Ge deposited under different conditions, either unsupported or on thermally oxidized Si, exhibit similar normal grain growth enhancement when implanted with 50 keV Ge+. Beam-enhanced grain growth in Ge was also demonstrated using Xe+, Kr+, and Ar+ ions. The variation in growth enhancement with projectile ion mass is in good agreement with the enhanced Frenkel defect population calculated using a modified Kinchin-Pease formula and Monte Carlo simulation of ion transport in thin films. Calculations based on experiments suggest that there is approximately one atomic jump across the grain boundary per defect generated. Also, the grain growth rate for a given beam-generated defect concentration near the boundary is approximately equal to the expected growth rate for the same defect concentration if thermally generated.

Transient enhanced diffusion is observed for P, As and Sb as a consequence of the recovery of the damage created by a silicon dose below the amorphization threshold. The phenomenon results more pronounced for low temperature furnace heating than after rapid thermal annealing and for those elements having a larger component of interstitialcy diffusion mechanism.

A close correlation was found between the trends of the anomalous dopant diffusion and the implant damage evolution analyzed by X-ray diffraction. This evolution takes place via interstitial cluster dissolution.

Multilayered Ni-Mo films were irradiated by 200keV Xe ions at room temperature to various doses. The beam current density was confined to be less than lμA/cm2 to avoid overheating. The experimental evidences from X-ray diffraction, electrical resistivity, as well 4 as Rutherford Backscattering, indicate that a dose of 7 × 1014/cm2 was the critical one for uniform mixing of the layers and amorphous phase formation in Ni65 Mo35 films. Under this critical dose, various dendritic patterns were formed as revealed by bright field transmission electron microscopy. The microscopic mechanisms of the ion induced dendritic growth are attributed to the cluster formation and the aggregation of the formed clusters.

We studied the lattice strain induced in the MeV ion bombarded InP crystals and the annealing behaviors of lattice strain, Raman line shift, and linewidth. The lattice spacing for the planes parallel to the surface decreases as a result of irradiation, and amounts to a strain of −0.061% for (100) face, −0.056% for (110) face, and −0.050% for (111) face for 15 MeV Cl bombarded samples to a dose of 1.25E15 ions/cm2. The negative lattice strain, Raman line shift, and line width completely recover at 450°C, and show a major recovery stage at 250°C – 350°C.

Recent theoretical and experimental studies of radiation-induced segregation in alloys under irradiation with focused charged-particle beams have shown that point-defect currents generated by axial and radial displacement-rate gradients can cause significant redistribution of the alloying elements within the irradiated zone. In the case of irradiation of thin films with highly-focused electron beams, two important features have been established experimentally: (i) the diameter of the local region in which the alloy composition and phase are modified is practically equal to the beam diameter, and (ii) the time required to produce a given change in the alloy composition in the center of the irradiated zone decreases rapidly with beam diameter. Our theoretical modeling indicates that these features will also be observed in semi-infinite alloys bombarded with focused proton beams. However, in this case, the spatially-nonuniform defect production in both the axial and radial directions renders the compositional redistribution more complex. The present work shows that the ability to locally modify the alloy composition by focused electron or proton beams may offer a new method for producing local regions of controlled composition and microstructure on a submicron scale. The results of our model calculations and experimental studies will be presented to demonstrate the feasibility of this novel technique.

Whiskers have been observed to form on thin films (1000–2000 Å) of Sn following implantation of 20-keV H or He at temperatures below 150 K. The morphology of the whiskers following growth was examined using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) to illuminate the possible growth modes. In an effort to obtain support for either of several models of the growth process, the region near the base of the whiskers was examined for evidence of depletion or extrusion. No evidence of depletion was observed. The whiskers could be classified into two types: those that were supported on pedestals, a short transition region at the base of the whisker; and those without pedestals, which rose abruptly from the film with no transition. A novel structure has been observed on Sn films that were coated with 500 Å of Au/Pd to enhance the SEM image. The structure consists of a thin, planar surface several microns in length, oriented perpendicular to the substrate. The structures did not appear immediately after coating, but were present after storage in air for one month.

Implantation with 400 keV Ag or Cu ions improves the near-surface microstructural quality and reflectance of diamond turned and mechanically polished flat copper laser mirrors. Spectroscopic ellipsometry is sensitive to changes in either the microscopic surface roughness, or in the nearsurface substrate void fraction, and both parameters are observed to change upon implantation. Substrate density as a function of ion fluence peaks at about 5 × 10 15cm-2. Low energy (300 eV) Ar ion implantation can cause either a reduction or increase in microscopic surface roughness, depending on fluence.

We develop a model that appears to account for the existence of a new mode of crystallization recently discovered during zone-melt-recrystallization (ZMR) of silicon thin films on SiO 2 using a scanned strip heater or lamp. Transition to the new crystallization regime is induced by reducing the temperature of the scanned upper heater strip, thus reducing dT/dy, the thermal gradient along the direction of scan at the silicon solidification front. If dT/dy ≤:4 K/mm, the single crystal films have long non-branched subboundaries with tilt misalignments of 0.1 or less, a lateral separation in excess of 50 µm, and consist of rows of short dislocations threading through the film thickness and terminating at the two SiO2 layers. This is in marked contrast to material ZMR scanned at higher dT/dy which shows conventionally branched 1 to 3 subboundaries that consist of edge dislocations running in the plane of the film often for several hundred microns.

Our model extends the {111} faceted-freezing-front picture we have developed previously to take into account the freezing profile with respect to film thickness, and in particular to such profiles at the intersections of pairs of {111} facets where subboundaries are known to form. We propose that the melt-freezing interface profiles at these interior corner intersections are aligned approximately normal to the scan in the high gradient case, but become tilted towards the plane of the SiO2 cap layer for the low gradient case. This tilting accounts in a natural way for the transition from in-plane to threading dislocations.

Using in situ optical microscopy we have studied the morphology of the liquid-solid interface during zone melting recrystallization. We have observed a variety of interface morphologies, each of which corresponds to specific types and distributions of subboundaries in the solidified material. We have also observed a variety of morphologies for stationary interfaces. We propose that perturbations in both the stationary and moving liquid-solid interfaces develop, at least in part, due to the spatial gradient in the radiation intensity in the region of the interface.

We present 3 techniques of defect localization we have studied in order to produce Silicon On Insulator films obtained by Lamp Zone Melting. They consist in a periodical variation of the thickness of either the oxide cap, or the polysilicon film, or the underlying oxide layer. We compare the crystallographic quality of the resulting films and in-situ observations of the solidification front for each structure.

When Si-on-insulator films 0.3 to 0.5 µm thick are recrystallized by zone melting under the usual conditions, the defect trails within grains are subboundaries. We report that the use of an entrainment pattern, consisting of a grating of carbonized photoresist on top of the SiO2 encapsulating layer, can lead to the replacement of subboundaries by defect trails that are spaced dislocation clusters or discrete threading dislocations. Such defects are expected to be less detrimental to submicrometer MOSFET circuits than subboundaries.

We have made extensive microdiffraction studies of the crystallographic orientation of recrystallized (001) Si films, and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) analysis of dislocations at the initiation sites of the subboundaries. The microdiffraction studies reveal a characteristic folding behavior between the subgrains with an increasing tilt angle in the direction away from the initiation sites. The TEM results show straight dislocations along the [110] direction initiating from the nucleation site, the appearance of curved dislocations, and buckling of the epi film around the nucleation site, all indicative of a strong bending force at the initiation site. These two predominant characterististics of the recrystallized films, i.e., (1) crystallographic orientation of the subgrains, and (2) subboundaries together with their associated defects can be successfully interpreted in terms of the model which we recently proposed for the subboundary formation.

Characteristics of beam-recrystallized Si-on-insulator (SOT) and Ge-on-insulator (GOI) material systems are compared for the first time to gain complementary understanding of the crystallization mechanism that would benefit both systems. In general, GOI has been found to behave quite differently from SOI. In SOI, Si yields sub-boundaries; in GOI, Ge generates twinned or faceted crystals. In GOI, too, sub-boundary-like features were observed, but only occasionally in the midst of twinned crystals. Also observed in GOI was the phenomenon of seeded crystallization breakdown, where defect-free crystals from the seed abruptly turn into defect-laced crystals at a certain distance from the seed. This phenomenon is highly characteristic in SOI, but has never been reported for GOI. These findings are compared and discussed in light of the traditional understanding of crystal growth.

From the early work on high dose oxygen implantation for buried SiO2 formation, it is apparent that the temperature of the Si substrate during the implant has a strong influence on the quality of both the SiO2 layer and the overlying Si. This, in turn, can be related to the damage from the oxygen implant. For substrate temperatures < ∼ 300°C, amorphous Si is created during the implant and leads to the formation of twins or polycrystalline Si during the subsequent high temperature (>1300°C) anneal. At higher substrate temperatures (<∼400°C), dynamic annealing eliminates the amorphous Si, but the implanted oxygen appears to segregate during the implant leading to oxygen-rich amorphous regions imbedded in regions of crystalline material. As the amorphous regions start to coalesce and form SiO2 during the high temperature anneal, they trap crystalline Si which cannot escape by diffusion. This process can be circumvented by using a randomizing Si implant to change the damage structure from the oxygen implant before annealing. We have seen these effects clearly in sub-stoichiometric implants, and believe they are also operative during stoichiometric implants.