Dose effects on amorphous silicon sputtering by argon ions: A molecular dynamics simulation

Abstract

We have investigated, using molecular dynamics techniques, the sputtering yield enhancement of amorphous silicon produced by argon ion accumulation within the target. Several amorphous silicon samples, with different argon contents, were bombarded with 1 keV argon ions at normal incidence. To study the influence of the target structure, we considered samples with different argon arrangements, either uniformly distributed or within solid bubbles. We have observed that silicon sputtering yield increases linearly with dose until steady state conditions are reached. This enhancement is produced by the shallow argon atoms through the weakening of Si-Si bonds. We have also observed that argon release takes place even long after the end of the collisional phase, and it is produced by ion-induced desorption and bubble destabilization. This enhanced argon yield determines the dose where target saturation and steady state conditions are reached.

Amorphous silicon deposited by xenon ion beam assisted deposition

“…Ion bombardment with noble gas has also been used for etching, surface cleaning, and depth profiling. Molecular dynamics has been used to investigate the effect of dose implantation [3], mechanical properties [4], stress [5] structural properties [6] among other investigations [7][8][9][10][11]. Some works have investigated the incorporation of noble gases.…”

Pore sealing mechanism in OSG low‐k films under ion bombardment

“…However, such processes take place at a much larger timescale (e.g., microseconds scale) than the usual time of MD runs, so this issue will be dealt with in our further studies. In this study, we have calculated the density of the continuous layer for the case where all implanted He or Ar atoms leave the surface via bursts of clusters or thermal desorption . In the case of the Ar + irradiation, the corresponding density is shown in Figure b as a thin blue line, and this curve goes very close to the base Ar curve (bold blue line) calculated with implanted Ar atoms.…”