A low-energy ion beam system for studying energetic ion deposition on Silicon surfaces

Abstract

An ultrahigh vacuum low-energy ion beam system is described, which has been developed for studying the nature of ion beam depositions. A feature of the system is its ability of low-energy ion beam deposition and its characterization are in situ performed on a substrate surface using low-energy ion scattering spectroscopy and low-energy electron diffraction techniques. The preliminary results obtained for the case of Bi ion beam deposition onto cleaned silicon surfaces are (1) monomeric Bi ions, dimeric Bi ions, and double-charged Bi ions can be extracted and their deposition energies can be controlled in the range of 5–1000 eV under a condition of the ion acceleration voltage of 1000 V, (2) the target chamber is maintained at a pressure of less than 7.9×10 -7 Pa during the ion beam deposition, (3) the absolute coverage is controllable down to 0.01ML range.