A broad-beam, high-current metal-ion implantation facility

Abstract

We have developed a high-current metal-ion implantation facility with which high-current beams of virtually all the solid metals of the periodic table can be produced. The facility makes use of a metal-vapor vacuum-arc ion source which is operated in a pulsed mode, with 0.25 ms pulse width and a repetition rate up to 100 pps. Beam extraction voltage is up to 100 kV, corresponding to an ion energy of up to several hundred keV because of the ion charge-state multiplicity; beam current is up to several amperes peak and around 10 mA time-averaged delivered onto target. Implantation is done in a broad-beam mode, with a direct line-of-sight from ion source to target. Here we describe the facility and some of the implants that have been carried out using it, including the “seeding” of silicon wafers prior to CVD with titanium, palladium or tungsten, the formation of buried iridium silicide layers, and actinide (uranium and thorium) doping of III–V compounds.