In-situ observations of the development of heavy-ion damage in semiconductors

In situ observations on ion beam induced amorphisation of GaAs, GaP and Si are reported. Direct impact amorphisation was found to occur in GaAs irradiated with 100-keV Xe(+) ions to low doses at low temperature (approx. 40K) in contrast to previous room temperature irradiations. In GaP and in silicon, where heavy projectiles do cause direct impact amorphisation at room temperature, the evolution of the damage structure with ion dose was studied. The defect yield both in GaP irradiated with 100-keV Kr(+) ions and in Si irradiated with 100-keV Xe(+) ions was found to decrease monotonically with increasing dose over the dose range 10 to the 15th power to 10 to the 17th power ions m(-).