50 years of ion channeling in materials science

Abstract

In the early days of ion beam analysis, i.e. the early 60s, channeling was discovered and brought to maturity via a combined effort in experimental, computational and theoretical research. It was soon realized that the probability for nuclear interaction (such as nuclear scattering, nuclear reactions, ionization followed by X-ray emission. . .) would significantly decrease when steering the ion beam along a crystallographic direction of a single crystal. Hence, this effect would be optimally suited to investigate a wide range of materials properties related to their crystal structure, such as defects, elastic strain, the lattice site of impurities, as well as phonon-related properties.In this paper, I will briefly review some of the pioneering work, which led to the discovery and theoretical understanding of ion channeling. Subsequently, a number of applications will be discussed where the strength of the ion beam analysis technique allows deducing information which is often hardly (or not) attainable by other techniques. Throughout the paper, I will reflect on the future of channeling in materials research, and pay special attention to potential pitfalls, challenges and opportunities.

Electronic Stopping of Slow Protons in Oxides: Scaling Properties

“…For many decades, fundamental research has been dedicated to accurate description of the relevant energy loss processes. The understanding gained is indispensable for wide-ranging applications -space research, material science, nuclear fusion and fission or radiation therapy [1]. In this context, a key quantity is the mean energy loss per path length, i.e., the stopping power S = dE/dx, with contributions due to electronic excitations, Se, and nuclear collisions, Sn.…”

Use of TRIDYN and medium energy ion scattering to calibrate an industrial arsenic plasma doping process

“…The first part contributed to electronic energy loss and the measured backscattered signals from non-crystalline surface regions of the samples and interstitial atoms, whilst the second part only described the energy loss and scattering from the crystalline regions. This is similar to the approach summarised in 11 . Comparison of the aligned and random spectra allowed the amounts of substitutional and interstitial As and Si damage profiles to be estimated.…”

A comparative study of epitaxial InGaAsBi/InP structures using Rutherford backscattering spectrometry, X-ray diffraction and photoluminescence techniques

“…7(b) shows a shallower channel, indicative of crystal defects. It also suggests a possible steering effect whereby the channelling dip is interrupted by a waveform like pattern on one side [25,26], with all the elements in the InGaAsBi layer showing two minima. The deepest minimum corresponds to that in the indium of the substrate.…”

“…The deepest minimum corresponds to that in the indium of the substrate. The second minimum, not present in the substrate, is often associated with strain [25,26,27] or defects. However, as no clear strained layer was resolvable in XRD, the second minimum may be associated with stacking fault related defects as has been observed in metallic alloys [28,29] and predicted for III-nitrides [30,31].…”