Density Measurements of Ion Implanted Amorphous Silicon

Abstract

ABSTRACTThe density of amorphous Si was measured. Continuous and buried amorphous Si films were produced by 0.5-8 MeV Si implantation through a steel contact mask. Surface steps of amorphous Si stripes with initial thicknesses from 0.9 to ∼ 5.0 μm were measured using a surface profilometer. For implants up to 5 MeV, the amorphous Si is constrained laterally by the surrounding crystal and deforms plastically. The density of amorphous Si deduced from the surface step heights is 4.91 × 1022 cm-3, 1.7 ± 0.1 % less than the density of crystal Si (5.00 × 1022 cm-3).