Role of electronic and nuclear energy losses in swift heavy ion beam induced epitaxial crystallization of a buried Si3N4 layer

This paper reports on swift heavy ion beam induced epitaxial crystallization of a buried Si3N4 layer. Transmission electron microscopy and selected area diffraction patterns are used to study the epitaxial growth of the buried Si3N4 layer. We observe good epitaxial crystallization at 150 °C and 200 °C, respectively, for 70 MeV Si and 100 MeV Ag ions at an ion fluence of 1 × 1014 ions cm−2. The fact that recrystallization is achieved at a lower temperature for Si ions is attributed to the higher ratio (one order of magnitude) of the electronic to nuclear energy loss values compared to that of Ag ions. The possible role of the electronic and nuclear energy loss processes in the mechanism of recrystallization has also been discussed.