Interactions of argon cluster ion beams with silicon surfaces

In addition, the Si surfaces, which were previously damaged at a dose of 1 × 1015 ions/cm2 by the irradiation of high energy cluster ion beams such as 5 keV ion beams, were re-irradiated at a dose of 1 × 1016 ions/cm2 by low energy cluster ion beams such as 2 keV ion beams. The RBS channeling showed that the number of displacement atoms on the damaged surface decreased. The deposited energy on the Si surface was used to improve the crystalline state of the damaged surface, which suggests that the cluster ion irradiation has the ability to anneal the solid surfaces by adjusting the acceleration voltage and the cluster size.