Intra-Cascade Surface Recombination of Point Defects During Ion Bombardment of Ge (001)

Abstract

ABSTRACTLow energy Ar and Xe ion bombardment of Ge (001) produces large numbers of point defects on the Ge surface and in the near-surface regions. Defect concentrations on the surface are detected and quantified in real time during bombardment using in situ Reflection High Energy Electron Diffraction (RHEED). We report the energy dependence of the defect yield for 70–500 eV Ar and Xe ion bombardment, and the temperature dependence of the defect yield (defects/ion) during 200 eV ion bombardment. The defect yield drops rapidly as the substrate temperature during bombardment is varied from 175 K to 400 K. We attribute the yield reduction to surface recombination of adatoms and vacancies produced in the same collision cascade.