Stress evolution to steady state in ion bombardment of silicon

Low temperature ion bombardment of initially crystalline, defect-free silicon with 700 eV ion beam energy creates a highly-damaged stressed layer a few nanometers thick on the surface. An apparent steady state in structure is achieved at a fluence of 2 × 1014–3 × 1014 ions/cm2. In this work, the stresses are computed using the interatomic force definition of stress. The stress evolution is studied as a function of argon implantation into the target. Stress per implanted argon atom is observed to reach a nearly constant value between 20 MPa and 25 MPa at a fluence of 1.2 × 1014 ions/cm2.