Control of swelling height of Si crystal by irradiating Ar beam.

It has been found that ion implantation can induce a swelling (step-height) phenomenon on crystal surface. In this paper, we studied about the control of swelling height of Si crystal by irradiating Ar beam under various parameters (fluence, charge and energy). These irradiation parameters were regulated by an irradiation facility that enables to achieve the multiple ionization. For both charges, the swelling height was studied with the various fluencies of two different charges Ar(1+) and Ar(4+). The swelling height increased with increasing the fluence. The swelling height was also studied by changing energy of Ar(4+) beam. The swelling height increased by increasing the energy. The obtained swelling heights are understood base on the contribution of ion-beam induced defect, which is evaluated by SRIM. By comparing with the previous results, it was found that the expansion phenomena also depend on irradiated ion. The swelling structures were found to be stable more than two months. The present results have shown that this method of producing swelling structure indicates the potential application to fabricate 3-D nanostructure.