Ion Beam Studies of Strains/Defects in Semiconductor Multilayers

Abstract

High Resolution X-Ray Diffraction (HRXRD) studies have been performed to study the effects of Swift Heavy Ion (SHI) irradiation on In0.53Ga0.47As/InP lattice matched superlattice. Sample under the study have been irradiated using 130 MeV Ag ions to two different fluences (5 × 1012 ions/cm2 & 5 × 1013 ions/cm2). Pre and post irradiation annealing (RTA) studies have also been performed. A finite tensile lattice strain has been introduced due to the intermixing caused by ion irradiation and/or annealing processes. The superlattice period is found to increase due to ion irradiation and annealing processes. The superlattice structure used in this work was grown by Metal Organic Chemical Vapor-phase epitaxial Deposition (MOCVD). Ion channeling measurements were earlier performed on the low dose sample. Channeling and HRXRD measurements show good crystalline/interface quality of pristine and processed samples. HRXRD also indicates the existence of the sharp boundaries across the superlattice interfaces. A decreasing modulation of the intensities of satellite peaks is caused by a gradual diffusion of individual layer interface. Such effects are more prominent for the irradiated and annealed sample.