Effect of high electronic excitation in swift heavy ion irradiated semiconductors

The damage evolution due to high electronic energy deposition during 375 MeV Xe and 593 MeV Au ion irradiation was studied in the semiconductors InP, GaP, GaAs, AlAs and Ge using RBS and TEM. In InP the high electronic energy deposition leads to the formation of amorphous tracks. In the other materials no effect of the electronic energy deposition on damage formation was found. The TEM investigations show that in InP each impinging ion produces a track. With the use of the extended thermal spike model lattice temperatures and maximum radii of the molten zones were calculated for InP and Ge. Whereas in InP the lattice temperature exceeds the melting temperature confirming the observed formation of amorphous tracks, this is not the case for Ge. The calculated radii of the molten zones in InP are in good agreement with the track radii determined from the TEM images.