Articles you may be interested inChemical effect of Si+ ions on the implantation-induced defects in ZnO studied by a slow positron beam J. Appl. Phys. 113, 043506 (2013); 10.1063/1.4789010 Fluence, flux, and implantation temperature dependence of ion-implantation-induced defect production in 4H-SiC J. Appl. Phys. 97, 033513 (2005); 10.1063/1.1844618 Identification of vacancy-oxygen complexes in oxygen-implanted silicon probed with slow positrons J. Appl. Phys. 95, 3404 (2004); 10.1063/1.1652241 Vacancy-related defect distributions in 11 B -, 14 N -, and 27 Al -implanted 4H-SiC: Role of channelingThis report deals with studies concerning vacancy related defects created in silicon due to implantation of 200 keV per atom aluminium and its molecular ions up to a plurality of 4. The depth profiles of vacancy defects in samples in their as implanted condition are carried out by Doppler broadening spectroscopy using low energy positron beams. In contrast to studies in the literature reporting a progressive increase in damage with plurality, implantation of aluminium atomic and molecular ions up to Al 3 , resulted in production of similar concentration of vacancy defects. However, a drastic increase in vacancy defects is observed due to Al 4 implantation. The observed behavioural trend with respect to plurality has even translated to the number of vacancies locked in vacancy clusters, as determined through gold labelling experiments. The impact of aluminium atomic and molecular ions simulated using MD showed a monotonic increase in production of vacancy defects for cluster sizes up to 4. The trend in damage production with plurality has been explained on the basis of a defect evolution scheme in which for medium defect concentrations, there is a saturation of the as-implanted damage and an increase for higher defect concentrations. V C 2015 AIP Publishing LLC. [http://dx.