Surface crystallinity and radiation-amorphization of InP – An X-ray grazing incidence study

Abstract

First results of a radiation-amorphization study of InP are presented which were obtained at a six-circle diffractometer operated at the bending magnet beamline KMC-2 at the Berlin synchrotron radiation source BESSY. Beside standard scattering experiments like X-ray reflectivity and conventional X-ray diffraction (XRD), the versatile design allows also for surface scattering geometries such as grazing incidence diffraction. A study of the surface crystallinity and amorphization of InP irradiated with swift heavy ions has been carried out. Grazing incidence diffraction revealed sharp Bragg peaks for both, irradiated and unirradiated InP, validating the existence of a crystalline near-surface layer. Comparing the peak width of both samples recorded with conventional XRD the thickness of the surface layer has been estimated to be approximately 30 nm in agreement with previous Rutherford backscattering results.