Characteristics of implantation-induced damage in GaSb

Abstract

The production and annealing of radiation damage in GaSb Ne-implanted at high energy are studied by transmission electron microscopy and Rutherford backscattering spectrometry in combination with the channeling technique. The anomalous swelling phenomenon of implanted GaSb, previously reported, is found to be related to the formation of voids and microtwins in the crystalline implanted layer. These defects appear when the introduced damage exceeds a critical amount and lead to the formation of a porous polycrystalline GaSb layer, whereas in most other III-V materials an amorphous layer is formed. Provided the swelling is avoided, there is a good recovery of the lattice upon rapid thermal annealing at 600 °C. Otherwise, a heavily perturbed layer remains, containing voids, dislocations and, at sufficiently high doses, polycrystalline GaSb. From previously published results, it is inferred that the InSb behavior towards radiation damage is similar to that of GaSb.

Formation of Anomalous Defect Structure on GaSb Surface by Low Temperature Sn Ion-Implantation

“…The anomalous defect formation behavior in Sn + implanted GaSb (and InSb), which has not been observed in the other compound semiconductors, seems to be related to the surface elevation in GaSb and InSb first observed by Kleitman and Yearian 7) and to the similar phenomena observed by other researchers. [8][9][10][11] However their obserred defect structures are significantly different with our found anomalous structure consisting of many cells with a high aspect ratio and with an open end. The sponge-like porous layer in the elevated GaSb surface observed by Callec et al 10) was a pile of voids and the top surface was covered with a skin.…”

“…They considered that the elevations occurred after amorphization since the critical dose for elevation was equal to that of amorphization. In 1993, by TEM, Callec and Poudoulec 11) observed GaSb which was implanted with 1.8 MeV Ne + so as to create defects only in the bulk, and reported that swelling started with formation of voids and microtwins.…”

Void Formation and Structure Change Induced by Heavy Ion Irradiation in GaSb and InSb

“…In the case of GaN, [5][6][7][8] nitrogen bubbles and gallium nanocrystals are formed in the amorphized layer by ion irradiation. In the case of GaSb [9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17] and InSb, 9,17,18) unusual behaviors, such as elevation, swelling, and the formation of holes, voids, nanofibers, and cellular structures with nano to submicron dimensions, are observed on irradiated surfaces. Similar phenomena occur in irradiated Ge surfaces (for example, see Refs.…”

Surface modifications caused by a swift heavy ion irradiation on crystalline p-type gallium antimonide

“…Moreover, it is also a very good substrate for semiconductor integrated devices, because of its lattice parameter (6.09 Å) being very near to the lattice parameter of other semiconductors such as InAs, GaAlAs and CdTe [3]. Also, detection at longer wavelength, [8][9][10][11][12][13][14] lm is possible with intersub-band absorption in antimonide based superlattices [4]. Finally, one of the most promising applications of GaSb is in the development of thermophotovoltaic cells based on GaSb materials, either in bulk or in thin-film configurations.…”