Sensitivity of ion implantation to low-energy electronic stopping cross-sections

Abstract

Clarifying the sensitivity of ion implantation to low-energy electronic stopping cross-sections (ESCS) is critical to assess different ESCS for simulating radiation damage in the fields like materials science, space exploration and electronic industry. The Monte Carlo code IM3D improved with a users’ ESCS module and a proposed analytical model are used to investigate the sensitivity of ion depth distribution to different ESCS including Stopping and Range of Ions in Matter (SRIM), Binary Theory (BT) and Unitary Convolution Approximation (UCA) at low energies (lower than 75 keV/u). The analytical model is consistent with IM3D well and thus provides a simple way to assess arbitrary ESCS. We found that the larger the ratio of electronic to nuclear energy loss is, the stronger sensitivity of ion depth distribution to ESCS is. Based on the assessment, the upgraded SRIM database and BT with the shell correction for light ions while UCA with the Bloch correction for heavy ions are recommended for simulating ion implantation to agree with experimental results.