Abstract
The dynamical process of surface band bending induced by ion bombardment as a function of ion fluence and energy has been studied with a special low energy ion beam system and an x-ray photoelectron spectrometer. It was found that 10 and 100 eV Ar+ bombardment of n- and p-InP (110) samples, which were prepared in ultrahigh vacuum by in situ cleavage of InP (100) bars, moved their surface Fermi levels to a common pinning position 0.95 eV above the valence-band maximum. The observed surface band bending was attributed to the displacement damage in the near-surface region induced by the ion bombardment. A quantitative analysis of the band bending data as a function of ion fluence showed that for the 10 eV Ar+ bombardment the formation of ionized surface states at a density of about 1×1012/cm2 in the band gap of InP was induced by an ion fluence of 5×1016/cm2. As expected, an increase of bombardment energy from 10 to 100 eV greatly raised the formation probability of surface defects. The results imply that very brief plasma exposure is sufficient to cause surface damage to a semiconductor that is severe enough to affect the device performance of the semiconductor.
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