The kinetics of self ion amorphization of silicon

In-situ time resolved reflectivity and Rutherford backscattering and channeling have been used to monitor damage buildup, amorphization and crystallization processes in self ion irradiated silicon at energies from 80 keV to 3 MeV. Particular attention is given to the regime where dynamic annealing during irradiation competes strongly with damage production. Results indicate that the "kinetics" of the amorphization process are described by an activation energy of 0.79±0.12 eV over the temperature range 20-120°C and that the same amorphization process controls both nucleation at end of range damage and layer-by-layer amorphization for self ion irradiation. However, it is difficult to ascribe the process to a particular controlling defect in the temperature range under study.