Ion-Beam-Assisted Nanocrystal Formation in Silicon Implanted with High Doses of Pb+ and Bi+ Ions

In this paper we discuss ion-beam-assisted nanocrystal nucleation in amorphized silicon (a-Si) layers produced by high-dose implantation of Pb+ and Bi+. (100)-oriented Si wafers were implanted at room temperature (RT) with 50 keV Pb+ and Bi+ ions at doses ranging from 5E13 to 1E18 cm−2 and a constant ion current density of 10μAcm−2. The resulting structures were studied by conventional transmission electron microscopy (CTEM), high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) and Rutherford backscattering spectroscopy (RBS) in combination with computer simulations. The dynamics of the ion-beam-induced crystallization of new phases and precipitates evolution in the implanted layer were studied as a function of implant dose. It is established that the front of the new phase crystallization (cubic Pb and hexagonal Bi nanocrystals) starts approximately at the peaks of the implanted species profiles; the crystallography of the nucleated nanocrystal is examined as a function of the dose.