Ripple structures at top surfaces and underlying crystalline layers induced by ion beam erosion in silicon

Ion beam implantation is one of the major technologies in the semiconductor industry. Although there have been a lot of technological applications there is relatively little known about the structural changes of semiconductors after ion beam implantation. Of particular interest is the creation of lateral nanostructures using different methods of ion beam implantation. One method is to exploit the phenomenon of self-organization during the Ar+ implantation using an oblique ion beam bombarding the sample surface. This results in the growth of the periodic wavelike or ripple like morphology which is produced as a result of the interplay between a roughening process caused by the ion beam erosion (sputtering) of surface and a smoothening process caused by thermal or ion-beam-induced surface diffusion. At least the developing surface structures can be well described in terms of the Bradley-Harper model and respective extensions. Lot of investigations is going on to understand the formation of such nano-structures but mostly looking on the top surface. However, the ion energy dissipation takes place below the surface. Thus the investigation of the interface between the almost amorphous top layer and the underlying crystalline material is important for the understanding of pattern formation.
Detailed studies on the ion induced ripple formation on Si have revealed that they appear only in a limited range of incident angles. The ripple wavelength appears to be linearly dependent on the ion energy and varies in between several nm and hundreds of nm when the ion energy changes from 0.5 to 100 keV. If the ion beam energy was increased up to the 100keV range one-dimensional ripple structures on Si (100) surfaces with wave lengths up to the micro meter range have been observed.Recent investigations using TEM and depth resolved X-ray diffraction methods discovered that the ripples at the surface are followed by a nearly sinusoidal shaped buried interface between the strongly damaged, not completely amorphous near-surface region and the crystalline material. Depending on the chosen energy and the irradiation dose the “amorphous” layer could be reach a thickness of 100nm and corresponds fairly well to the end of range distance of implanted ions.