Significant progress has been realized in the use of quantum well intermixing (QWI) as a method for tailoring the bandgap energies of optoelectronic devices. Intermixing can be driven by an ion implantation process, an approach that appeals because of its simplicity, its planarity and its adaptability to selective area processing. Despite its success, the advantages of irradiation induced QWI need to be tested further and we report here current results of three research activities which address a) the existence or not of a simple scaling relationship which connects intermixing in a given QW structure for any ion species; b) reproducibility of intermixing in identical QW structures which have been obtained from different growth systems; and c) intermixing for above the well versus through the well implantation.

Using fluctuation microscopy, we show that ion-implanted amorphous silicon has more medium-range order than is expected from the continuous random network model. From our previous work on evaporated and sputtered amorphous silicon, we conclude that the structure is paracrystalline, i.e. it possesses crystalline-like order which decays with distance from any point. The observation might pose an explanation for the large heat of relaxation that is evolved by ion-implanted amorphous semiconductors.

Depth profiles of the radiation damage produced by 4 MeV Ag ions in Si(111) at temperatures of 210-450 K are studied by optical reflectivity depth profiling and TEM for doses between 1012 and 1015 Ag/cm2. For high implantation temperatures, the depth of maximum damage is shown to be dose dependent. Point defect diffusion is shown to result in long tails of defect depth profiles. High-temperature amorphization is observed to proceed via the formation and bridge-like coalescence of isolated amorphous volumina. The damage at the depth of the maximum in the nuclear stopping power is described as a function of dose and temperature by the Hecking model. The model parameters and a comparison with those obtained for lighter ions reflect the particular properties of heavy ion collision cascades.

Clarifying the local amorphization on the grain boundaries, the in-situ observation during ion-irradiation was carried out for poly-crystalline Si film. The critical dose of amorphous formation increased exponentially with increasing temperature, where the local amorphization was developed at middle temperature. The critical dose was affected by the doped impurity and the grain size. The preferential amorphization on and near grain boundaries had two processes; first stage with rapid growth rate and second stage with almost constant growth rate. The importance of stress was demonstrated from the acceleration due to the stress on the first stage of amorphization.

Cathodoluminescence (CL) microanalysis (spectroscopy and microscopy) in an electron microscope enables both pre-existing and irradiation induced local variations in the bulk and surface defect structure of wide band gap materials to be characterized with high spatial (lateral and depth) resolution and sensitivity. CL microanalytical techniques allow the in situ monitoring of electron irradiation induced damage, the post irradiation assessment of damage induced by other energetic radiation, and the investigation of irradiation induced electromigration of mobile charged defect species. Electron irradiated silicon dioxide polymorphs and MeV H+ ion implanted Type Ila diamond have been investigated using CL microanalytical techniques.

We present lattice site location and diffusion studies of ion implanted 8Li in ZnSe single crystals at sample temperatures between 180 K and 550 K using the emission channeling technique. Below 200 K, Li is immobile in ZnSe and occupies tetrahedral interstitial sites. Above 250 K, interstitial Li becomes mobile and for an accumulated dose above 1×1012 cm-2 the majority of the implanted Li atoms occupy substitutional sites, presumably Zn sites. However, for room temperature implantation at doses below 1×1012 cm-2, the majority of implanted Li still occupies interstitial sites. This behavior is explained by recombination processes between Zn interstitials and vacancies, thus reducing the vacancy concentration and maintaining a high fraction of interstitial Li. Substitutional Li is stable up to about 500 K and diffuses out for temperatures above. We calculate 0.5 eV for the migration energy of interstitial Li and 1.38 eV for the binding energy of substitutional Li.

The strain in GeSi/Si strained layer heterostructures is studied as a function of ion-irradiation and thermal annealing conditions and correlated with the defect microstructure in the GeSi alloy layer. For room temperature irradiation, compressive strain within the alloy layer increases with increasing ion fluence for both low (projected range of ions within the alloy layer) and high energy (projected range of the ions greater than alloy thickness) irradiation. In contrast, elevated temperature irradiation results in an increase in strain for low-energy irradiation, but a decrease for high-energy irradiation. For example, strain relaxation is observed in layers irradiated with I MeV 28Si+ at 253 °C. During subsequent annealing to 750 °C, the strain is partially recovered but relaxes again at temperatures > 750°C. This behavior is shown to be consistent with the evolution of intrinsic (vacancy-type) defects within the alloy layer.

Si and Ge samples of different substrate orientations were implanted with 50 keV Xe+ ions to a dose around 1011 ions/cm2 where the amorphous zones, created by individual ions, remained spatially isolated. The samples were subsequently irradiated at either 90 or 300K with electrons having energies from 25 to 300 keV in a transmission electron microscope (TEM). At all electron energies and at both temperatures a significant fraction of amorphous zones crystallized, showing that this effect is not due to a temperature increase and occurs at energies below the threshold displacement energy. Preliminary results show that in Ge the crystallization rate depends on the substrate orientation, while in Si this effect was not observed. The results are discussed in terms of possible explanations for epitaxial growth.

High energy and high fluence proton irradiated semi-insulating GaAs has been studied by EBIC, PL mapping, C-V, NTSC, PICTS and p-DLTS. The main defects generated by the irradiation were analyzed. An EL2-like defect was found to be dominant. The generation of this defect annihilates the typical cellular distribution of EL2 in as-grown material. The generated EL2 defects present a different photoquenching behavior than the as-grown EL2 defects.

Ion damage and amorphization behavior in InGaAs with InAs mole fractions in the range of 0 to 50%are studied. We found that the degree of dynamic annealing increases as the InAs mole fraction increases in the InGaAs when the implantation is carried out at room temperature (RIT). Extended x-ray absorption fine structure measurements reveal that in the amorphous state the InAs nearest neighbor distance, RIn-As is very different from that in the crystalline InGaAs and is ∼0.01 Å longer than that in pure crystalline InAs. For RT implanted materials, before a complete amorphous layer is formed, the RIn-As remains close to its crystalline value even when the layer is heavily damaged. A sudden increase of the RIn-As is observed when a complete amorphous layer is formed. The behavior of the measured values of RIn-As for InGaAs implanted with various doses, indicates that at RT the formation of amorphous InGaAs occurs by the simultaneous nucleation of the amorphous phase when the critical free energy in the damage layer is exceeded. At liquid nitrogen temperature, when dynamic annealing is negligible, the RIn-As value increases as the damage in the layer increases, suggesting that the amorphous InGaAs is formed by the accumulation and overlapping of amorphous zones created along the individual ion tracks.

The ternary chalcopyrite semiconductor CuInSe2 and related ternary compounds are promising materials for the production of high-efficiency thin film solar cells. In this paper we study the dose dependence of ion radiation damage produced by 30 keV and 80 keV Ar ions in single crystals and polycrystalline films of Cu(In,Ga)Se 2 over a wide dose range from 1012 to 1017 cm-2, using Raman spectroscopy and ion channeling measurements. For the first time, we also report on the dose rate dependence with a variation of the beam current density in the range 0.44 to 44 µcm-2. Even for low damage levels no significant dependence of the defect concentration or damage mechanism on the dose rate could be observed. From phonon correlation length considerations we estimate defect densities. They are in agreement with ion channeling data obtained in the 1015 to 1016 dose range, where the breakdown of the lattice structure occurs. In this dose range, the defect density is close to the concentration of implanted atoms. We conclude, that this high impurity concentration is responsible for the amorphization.

The damage production in the Si9Ge6 superlattices (SLs) upon implantation of 150 keV Ar+ ions at 300 K was studied my means of the cross-sectional transmission electron microscopy (XTEM) and electron microdiffraction. It was found that the amorphization occurs in a narrow dose range of (1 – 2) × 1014 cm-2 via accumulation of point defects. The conclusion drawn earlier (Mater. Sci. Forum 248-249, 289 (1997)) on the coherent amorphization of the Si and Ge layers in the SLs was confirmed. Possible mechanisms of the layer interaction leading to the observed behavior are discussed.

We have studied by means of Raman spectroscopy the electron density in two different n-type InP samples with similar doping densities, obtained, respectively, by ion-beam implantation of 150 keV Si+ and by uniform Sn doping during LEC growth. The Raman spectra recorded at 80 K display in both cases the L+ and L– phonon-plasmon coupled modes. For the homogeneously doped InP:Sn sample, a simultaneous fit to the L+ and L– peaks of a line shape model based on the Lindhard-Mermin dielectric function yields accurate values of the charge density. In the implanted sample, the nonuniformity of the charge distribution substantially broadens the L+ modes, but the line shape fit to the L– mode still yields an average value of the electron density in the region probed by the laser beam.

Photothermal methods provide a valuable complement to the destructive measurement techniques for the detection of the optimal process conditions in ion beam synthesis of wide band gap semiconductor compounds. In addition to their nondestructive and non contact qualities, they are highly sensitive to changes of thermophysical properties due to structural changes. Analyses have been carried out with (SiC)l-x(AIN)x compounds, formed by ion beam synthesis.

The present work deals with the investigation of the electrical and structural properties of heavily boron-doped silicon irradiated by hydrogen. Blistering and splitting processes are enhanced with an increase in boron concentration in the crystal. The measured values of perpendicular strain are over 0.7% which corresponds to a gas overpressure of 0.5 GPa. Processes which lead to blistering and splitting is better described in the frame of a gas pressure model than a model of local stress caused by the defects.

Proton flux and temperature dependent generation rates of radiation-induced defect clusters under 17 MeV proton irradiation have been studied by in-situ Deep Level Transient Spectroscopy (DLTS) measurement, to obtain information on clustering processes. The proton flux was ranged from 2.51×10up to 1.6×1012ions/cm2s with irradiation temperature 200 K or 300 K. Flux dependence is related to the ratio of impurity and primary defect concentrations created during irradiation. Change in temperature mainly modifies the diffusion constants of defects which determine the reaction rates. Rate equations of the defect reactions based on the Oerlein model [1] were solved numerically and compared to the experimental results. The numerical calculation successfully explained temperature and flux dependence except in the higher flux region.

We have recently reported the annealing and electrical properties of three new families (N1, N2 and N3) of vacancy complexes introduced in 1 keV He-, Ne- and Ar-ion bombarded nSi. In this paper we have employed deep level transient spectroscopy to investigate the ion mass, fluence and energy dependence of the introduction of N1 -defects. We observed an increase in the intensity of Ni -defects with increasing mass of bombarding ions for a fluence of 1×1012cm−2and flux of 1×1011cm−2s−1, which we have correlated with the mass dependence of nuclear energy deposition. The ratio of the intensities of Ni-defects to VO-center, [N1]/[VO], increased by ∼5 when bombarding with Ar- compared to He-ions. Increasing the Ar-ion fluence from 1×1012cm−2to l×1014cm−2for a flux of 5×1010 cm−2s−;1increased the intensity of N1-defects by ∼20 times, while [N1]/[VO] increased by a factor ∼2.3. N1-defects were not created by 5.4 MeV alpha-particle irradiation, but were present in varying relative concentrations in 1 to 150 keV He-ion bombarded n-Si.

It has recently been shown that a band of nanocavities in crystalline silicon is eliminated during amorphization of the silicon surrounding this band [4]. In this study, we examine the effect of irradiation dose on nanocavity stability. Gettering of Au is used as a detector for open volume defects following annealing of irradiated samples. Rutherford backscattering and channeling and cross-sectional transmission electron microscopy have been used to analyse the samples. Cavities are only completely removed when the region surrounding the cavities is totally amorphized up to the surface. Partial amorphization leaves residual open volume defects.

Radiation effects in nonmetals have been studied for well over a century by geologists, mineralogists, physicists, and materials scientists. The present work focuses on recent results of investigations of the ion-beam-induced amorphization of the ABO4 compounds – including the orthophosphates (LnPO4; Ln = lanthanides) and the orthosilicates: zircon (ZrSiO4), hafnon (HfSiO4), and thorite (ThSiO4). In the case of the orthosilicates, heavy-ion irradiation at elevated temperatures causes the precipitation of a nanocrystalline metal oxide. Electron irradiation effects in these amorphized insulating ceramics can produce localized recrystallization on a nanometer scale. Similar electron irradiation techniques were used to nucleate monodispersed compound semiconductor nanocrystals formed by ion implantation of the elemental components into fused silica. Methods for the formation of novel structural relationships between embedded nanocrystals and their hosts have been developed and the results presented here demonstrate the general flexibility of ion implantation and irradiation techniques for producing unique near-surface microstructures in ion-implanted host materials.

In this paper, we present the results of our investigation of producing nanoclusters of gold in silica at fluences of two orders of magnitude less than what is traditionally used This is accomplished by implanting 2.0 MeV Au into silica followed by MeV bombardment by MeV Si ions. The size of the nanoclusters, ranging from one to 10 nanometers, is controlled by the implantation dose and by the total electronic energy deposited by each post bombarding ion in the implanted layer. By both indirect measurement methods, such as optical absorption spectrophotometry (non-destructive), and direct methods, such as transmission electron microscopy (destructive) we show how and at what concentrations gold nucleates to form nanoparticles by radiation-enhanced nucleation at a dose below that needed for spontaneous nanoparticle formation.