Fabrication of Si surface pattern by Ar beam irradiation and annealing method

The fabrication process of crater structures on Si crystal has been studied by an irradiation of Ar beam and a thermal annealing at 600 °C. The fabricated surface was measured by field emission scanning electron microscope and atomic force microscope. The results have shown the controllability of specifications of crater formation such as density, diameter and depth by changing two irradiation parameters, fluence and energy of Ar ions. By changing the fluence over a range of 1 ∼ 10 × 1016/cm2, we could control a density of crater 0 ∼ 39 counts/100μm2. By changing the energy over a range of 90 ∼ 270 keV, we could control a diameter and a depth of crater in 0.8 ∼ 4.1μm and 99 ∼ 229nm, respectively. The present result is consistent with the previously proposed model that the crater structure would be arising from an exfoliated surface layer of silicon. The present result has indicated the possibility of the crater production phenomena as a hopeful method to fabricate the surface pattern on a micro-nano meter scale.