Dependence of critical damage energies in diamond on electronic stopping

Damage profiles in diamond due to implantation of argon and krypton ions at liquid nitrogen temperature were determined by α-particle channeling in a backscattering geometry. Energies and fluences were chosen to obtain similar damage energies in the surface region as obtained for a 75 keV carbon implant, investigated and discussed in a previous paper. The damage profiles before and after annealing at 1500 K were compared with those of the carbon implants. Raman spectroscopic analyses and channeling results prove that, contrary to the carbon implants, no irreversible transition to the graphitic phase takes place at comparable damage energies. Critical damage energies are obviously higher for argon and krypton ions than for the lighter carbon ions. This can be explained by a strong annealing effect of the combined inelastic energy transfer by the ion and its associated recoil atoms due to electronic stopping.