Microcharacterisation of the effects of focused ion beam irradiation on wide bandgap materials

Full text: Focussed ion irradiation of wide bandgap materials is of great importance to fundamental physics (scattering, impurity effects) and practical applications (nano-modification, analysis, TEM sample preparation). Atomic Force and Kelvin Probe Microscopy and electron microprobe techniques were used in the systematic, high-resolution microcharactensation of focussed keV ion beam irradiated n-silicon and p-SIMOX (SOI). Variation with ion fluence of properties including surface topography, induced localised electrostatic potential and spatial elemental composition were investigated and qualitative correlations found The resultant potential distributions were modelled successfully using finite-element techniques. Explanations for the distributions have been proposed based on ion neutralisation, ion emission and charge trapping. Copyright (2005) Australian Institute of Physics