Electronic and optical properties of defects formed in Si during low energy noble gas ion bombardment

We have used deep level transient spectroscopy (DLTS) and photoluminescence (PL) to determine the electronic and optical properties of the defects created during 1 keV He-, Ne- and Ar-ion bombardment. Except for their different relative concentrations, the defects induced by He- and Ne-ion bombardment were found to be similar. The different set of defects introduced by Ar ions has been associated with their higher rates of nuclear energy deposition in Si. Some of the low energy defects were found to be electronically similar to primary defects formed during 5.4 MeV alpha-particle irradiation, while some others are proposed to be noble gas species related. PL studies have shown that the intensities of the G- and C-lines decreased with increasing irradiation dose of Ne ions after reaching a maximum at 1×10¹² cm^-2. The G-line intensity was found to decrease with the mass of noble gas used