Ion-Implanted Amorphous Silicon Studied by Variable Coherence TEM

Abstract

AbstractAmorphous silicon formed by ion-implantation of crystalline silicon is investigated with the use of VC-TEM (variable-coherence transmission electron microscopy). This technique is sensitive to medium-range-order structures. The results from high-energy Si implanted samples showed a striking similarity to sputtered amorphous silicon. We found that both ion-implanted and sputtered samples have paracrystalline structures, rather than the expected continuous random network (CRN). We also observed the structural relaxation of the ion-implanted amorphous silicon after ex-situ thermal annealing towards the random network. The more disordered structures are favored and a large heat of relaxation is released as the temperature increases. Finally, we show some preliminary results on the structural variation with the sample depth.