Structural investigations of amorphised iron and nickel by high-fluence metalloid ion implantation

Abstract

Boron, phosphorus and arsenic ions have been implanted into evaporated iron and nickel thin films at room temperature, and the implantation-induced microstructure has been investigated by high-voltage electron microscopy and transmission high energy electron diffraction. The metal films were implanted with ions into a constant dose of 1*1017 and 5*1017 ions/cm2 respectively at energy of 50 keV. An amorphous layer was produced by boron and phosphorus ion implantation. Information on the atomic structure of the amorphous layers was obtained from the elastically diffracted electron intensity. On the basis of the correct scattering curves, the total interference function and the pair correlation function were determined. Finally, the atomic arrangement of the implantation-induced amorphous layers is discussed and structure produced by ion irradiation is compared with amorphous structures formed with other techniques.