Assessment of implantation damage by backscatter Kikuchi diffraction in the scanning electron microscope

Abstract

Surface damage caused by ion implantation is assessed by backscatter Kikuchi diffraction in the scanning electron microscope. Backscatter Kikuchi diffraction patterns from Si(100) specimens implanted with different doses of 80-keV Ge ions between 3×1012 and 3×1014 ions cm−2 are obtained. The pattern contrast is quantified in a straightforward procedure employing standard image-processing operations. A comparison between the contrast in backscattering Kikuchi diffraction patterns and the channeling minimum in energy spectra by Rutherford backscattering spectrometry as a measure for surface implantation damage is made. As it turns out, both measures are about equally sensitive to the level of the surface implantation damage. The lateral resolution (<100 nm) and the high surface sensitivity (of the order of 10 nm) of backscatter Kikuchi diffraction may be exploited to study lateral implantation profiles with sub-μm resolution.