Evidence of plastic flow and recrystallization phenomena in swift (～100 MeV) Si~(7+) ion irradiated silicon

摘要

Surface modifications caused by a swift heavy ion irradiation on a crystalline p-type silicon crystal have been reported. ～100 MeV Si~(7+) ions from a 15UD Pelletron source has been employed with varying fluence of 10~(12) and 10~(13) ions cm~(-2). Atomic force microscopy has been extensively used to study these surface modifications. Significant observation includes the evidence for a plastic flow upon irradiation. Attempts have been made to explain the results on the basis of radiation-induced amorphization followed by recrystallization. The observation confirms the occurrence of these types of effects in such irradiations and is in line with the models based on thermal spike approach.