Study of the effect of H implantation and annealing on LiTaO3 surface blistering

• The effect of hydrogen ion implantation fluence on modification of the Z-cut LiTaO3 surface morphology and the evolution of blistering during annealing were experimentally analyzed.
• RBS/Channeling and ERD were used to examine ion-induced structural and compositional changes in the samples.
• The Föoppl-von Karman theory was introduced to calculate the critical internal pressure and stress to induce surface blistering.
• Gibbs free energy and critical radius are introduced to explain the blister shrink and rupture observed in the experiment.

LiTaO3 samples are implanted by 120 keV hydrogen ion with different fluences at room temperature. H+ concentration and distribution is detected using Elastic recoil detection. Experimental results show that the threshold fluence for blistering in LiTaO3 surface is 6 × 1016 ion/cm2. Surface blistering phenomenon is studied by using optical microscopy, Rutherford back scattering spectrometry, transmission electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy. Bubble growing and surface blister’s dependence on annealing process is observed and analyzed. The critical internal pressure and stress of surface blistering in H+-implanted LiTaO3 is derived based on theoretical model and experimental results. Gibbs free energy and cavity critical radius are introduced to explain the blister shrink and rupture observed in the experiment.