A comparative study of the on-surface diffusion of the ternary system Au/Pd/Si(111) under the influence of ion implantation

A study of the influence of ion implantation on the on-surface diffusion of a ternary system was elaborated by making a comparative study of the same ternary system, which consisted of the deposit of two metal coats (layers), Gold and Palladium, on (111) monocrystalline Silicon substrates, with and without preliminary ion implantation. So, three different series of samples were obtained and subjected to a vacuum heat treatment in temperatures varying from 200 to 800 deg. C and with a time in steps of 200 deg. C and with time of annealing of annealing fixed to 30 min. The first step consisted of ion implantation of a pair of (111) monocrystalline Silicon substrates which was realized using the ion implanter facility available at the CNRS/STRASBOURG-FRANCE, with two different ions species, Phosphorus and Argon, accelerated to 50 keV and a flux of 1x 1016 ions/cm2. The deposits of both metal coats (layers) were successively made without breaking the vacuum in the evaporator. The substrates of Silicon had undergone beforehand a chemical treatment by the CP4 method to avoid the effect of Oxygen barrier. Then we proceeded, simultaneously, to the annealing of each group of samples (the first two were implanted and the other one without ion implantation) in order to maintain exactly the same conditions for all of them. So, we were able to obtain a series of samples, the characterization of which was carried out by the various techniques available in the CRNA among which we selected: the Rutherford Backscattering Spectrometry (RBS), X-rays diffraction (XRD) and the scanning electronic microscopy (SEM) with its incorporated X-rays Energy Dispersal (XED) technique. These combined analyses allowed us to fulfil a comparative study of the interdiffusion between the various elements included and to follow the thermodynamics transformations that have arisen. The reaction dependence due to the influence of the ion implantation is also shown. (author)