Channeled ion beam synthesis of erbium silicide: Comparison of experimental studies and binary collision simulations

It was recently shown that thin films of high-quality rare-earth (RE) silicides can be formed by high-dose implantation of RE-metals into Si under channeling conditions, whereas it is impossible to form continuous RESi layers when using conventional non-channeled (7° tilted) implantation. This different behavior can be explained to a large extent by the differences in projected range, damage density and sputtering yield between channeled and non-channeled implantation, as is shown by comparison of experimental results to model calculations of the initial implantation process using the binary collision code MARLOWE.