In situ measurements of the channeling dependence of ion-beam-induced recrystallization in silicon

The crystallization rate of surface amorphous silicon layers irradiated with 7 MeV Au4+ ions has been studied for random and channeling incident beams. The movement of the amorphous/crystalline interfaces was monitored by in situ time resolved reflectivity and ex situ Rutherford backscattering spectrometry. Our experimental results reveal a clear channeling effect on the crystallization rates. Comparison of our data with calculations of the point defect distributions performed with the MARLOWE code suggests that defects produced at the amorphous crystalline interface are responsible for ion-beam-induced epitaxial crystallization