Surface oxidation of Si assisted by irradiation with large gas cluster ion beam in an oxygen atmosphere

Surface oxidation of Si assisted by Ar cluster impact with a current density of a few μA/cm² under O₂ atmosphere was investigated. Thin-film formation by cluster ion beam presents a number of advantages such as atomic-scale surface smoothing, high density and precise stoichiometry. We used an Ar cluster ion beam with 20 keV and a mean size of 1000 atoms per cluster and measured the emission yields of Si⁺ and SiO⁺ after Ar cluster ion irradiation in O₂ atmosphere using a quadrupole mass spectrometer to investigate the dependence of Si surface oxidation on oxygen partial pressure. It was found that the Si surface was oxidized by Ar cluster ion irradiation in O₂ atmosphere.     

The evolution of hydrogen from proton irradiated glassy carbon

Glassy carbon was irradiated with 15 keV H⁺ ion beam. It was observed that the implanted hydrogen is unstable in material and evolves as H, H₂ and H₂O. Post-irradiation evolution of H, H₂ and H₂O from proton irradiated glassy carbon was monitored by temperature programmed desorption (TPD) in the period of 30 days. In between irradiation and TPD measurements the irradiated samples were stored in air. The evolution of the molecular hydrogen, although the protons are implanted deeply below the surface of the disordered glassy carbon, proceeds over the same mechanism as in the case of low-energy H-atoms chemisorbed on the very surface of an ideal graphite structure.     

Ion irradiation effects on tungsten-oxide films and charge state effect on electronic erosion

We have studied electronic- and atomic-structure modifications of polycrystalline WO₃ films (bandgap of ∼3 eV) by ion irradiation. WO₃ films were prepared by oxidation of W films on MgO substrates and of W sheets. We find disordering or amorphization, the lattice expansion of ∼1.5% and bandgap increase of 0.2 eV after 90 MeV Ni ion irradiation at ∼3 × 10¹² cm⁻². A broad peak of optical absorption appears around 1.6 μm by ion irradiation. We also find that the erosion yield by high-energy ions with the equilibrium charge exceeds 10⁴ and that the erosion yield under ion impact with non-equilibrium charge (90 MeV Ni⁺¹⁰) is ∼1/5 of that with the equilibrium charge (89 MeV Ni⁺¹⁹). Effects of depth dependence of the ion mean charge on the erosion yields are discussed. The erosion yield by low-energy ions is also presented.     

Heavy ion beam induced phenomena in polytetrafluoroethylene

This paper describes the results on thermal and chemical analysis of polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) film stack after high-energy heavy ion beam irradiation under atmospheric fields at room temperature. After high-energy C⁶⁺ ion beam irradiation, the PTFE film stack was separated one by one, and then the various measurements such as differential scanning calorimetric (DSC) analysis and solid-state ¹⁹F magic-angle spinning (MAS) nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy were performed to get information of the chemical reaction and structural change at the localized positions. By ion beam irradiation for PTFE at room temperature, it is suggested that the abnormal phenomena due to the change of morphology could be observed by DSC analysis. In the solid-state ¹⁹F-MAS-NMR spectroscopy of ion irradiated PTFE film including Bragg peak region, several new signals were observed besides the intense peak of -CF₂- at −124 ppm. The detected new signals in ion irradiated PTFE should be due to the changed chemical structures. The signals, which are assigned, to the tertiary carbon group with branching site (Y-type crosslinking site), perfluoro-propylene site and chain end methyl site were directly detected, though it was under the oxidation condition. Thus, although it was under the oxidation condition, the branching or crosslinking reaction was taken place with the chain scission in the matrix. Moreover, the branched chain length would become short, compared with EB-crosslinked PTFE. Hence, it could be suggested that the irradiation of heavy ion beam induced large amounts of intermediate species, compared with EB or γ-ray irradiation, and then, those would be reacted with each other in the localized area. Especially, in region of the Bragg peak, the ion beam induced more large amounts of intermediate species than in the other region.     

Monte-Carlo study of induced radioactivity in probe for low-energy proton beam

Induced radionuclides generated from the probe which is bombarded by proton beam will turn the detector into a typical external irradiation radiation source. Thus, it is beneficial for developing radiation protection to calculate the types and the activities of radionuclides. Here we applied both a theoretical analysis and a Monte-Carlo method to compute the induced radioactivity in a copper probe irradiated by proton beam. Various kinds of radionuclides saturation activity obtained by these two different methods were compared. The comparisons of the results cast by the two methods show the similar saturation activities for ⁶³Zn and ⁶⁵Zn. However, the Monte-Carlo method conducted by the software FLUKA is able to provide a more complete consideration on nuclear reaction, and to calculate both the direct and indirect radioactivity under different irradiation time. Furthermore, by employing the FLUKA Monte-Carlo program, the induced radioactivity of three types of probe materials (Cu, Ta and W) under low-energy (below 20 MeV) proton beam irradiated were also separately simulated and tantalum is considered as the best material for low-energy proton interceptive diagnostics probe due to the higher energy threshold of nuclear reaction and the lower radioactivity.     

Proton beam induced luminescence of silicon dioxide implanted with silicon

Light emission from a silicon dioxide layer enriched with silicon has been studied. Samples used had structures made on thermally oxidized silicon substrate wafers. Excess silicon atoms were introduced into a 250-nm-thick silicon dioxide layer via implantation of 60 keV Si⁺ ions up to a fluence of 2 × 10¹⁷ cm⁻². A 15-nm-thick Au layer was used as a top semitransparent electrode. Continuous blue light emission was observed under DC polarization of the structure at 8-12 MV/cm. The blue light emission from the structures was also observed in an ionoluminescence experiment, in which the light emission was caused by irradiation with a H₂⁺ ion beam of energy between 22 and 100 keV. In the case of H₂⁺, on entering the material the ions dissociated into two protons, each carrying on average half of the incident ion energy. The spectra of the emitted light and the dependence of ionoluminescence on proton energy were analyzed and the results were correlated with the concentration profile of implanted silicon atoms.     

Silkworm eggs: An ideal model for studying the biological effects of low energy Ar ion interaction in animals

The object of the current work was to study low energy Ar⁺ ion beam interactions with silkworm eggs and thus provide further understanding of the mechanisms involved in ion bombardment-induced direct gene transfer into silkworm eggs. In this paper, using low-energy Ar⁺ ion beam bombardment combined with piggyBac transposon, we developed a novel method to induce gene transfer in silkworm. Using bombardment conditions optimized for egg-incubation (25 keV with ion fluences of 800 × 2.6 × 10¹⁵ ions/cm² in dry state under vacuum), vector pBac{3 × P3-EGFPaf} and helper plasmid pHA3pig were successfully transferred into the silkworm eggs. Our results obtained from by PCR assay and genomic Southern blotting analysis of the G1 generations provide evidence that low-energy ion beam can generate some craters that play a role in acting as pathways of exogenous DNA molecules into silkworm eggs.     

Change in magnetic properties of MgB2 thin films after irradiation by 200 MeV Au ion beam

The SHI irradiation induced effects on magnetic properties of MgB₂ thin films are reported. The films having thickness 300-400 nm, prepared by hybrid physical chemical vapor deposition (HPCVD) were irradiated by 200 MeV Au ion beam (S_e ∼ 23 keV/nm) at the fluence 1 × 10¹² ion/cm². Interestingly, increase in the transition temperature T_c from 35.1 K to 36 K resulted after irradiation. Substantial enhancement of critical current density after irradiation was also observed because of the pinning provided by the defects created due to irradiation. The change in surface morphology due to irradiation is also studied.     

Irradiation damage induced on polyethylene terephtalate by 1.6 MeV deuteron ions

The irradiation damage caused on polyethylene terephtalate (Mylar, PET) samples by 1.6 MeV deuteron ions has been measured using simultaneously the nuclear reaction analysis (NRA) and the transmission energy loss (TEL) techniques. The irradiation was carried out at normal incidence relative to the target surface with the irradiation beam being used as the analysis beam. The evolution of the overall damage during irradiation was evaluated by measuring the variation of the energy loss of the deuteron beam passing through the target. For this purpose, a solid state Si detector placed at a forward angle of 30° relative to the incident beam direction was used. The NRA spectra recorded by a second Si detector located backward at 150° allowed the evaluation of the carbon and the oxygen depletion. The beam spot size was circular in shape and 1 mm in diameter and the beam current was set at 5 nA. The ion fluence was increased up to the value of 2.5 × 10¹⁶ deuterons/cm². It was observed that the target energy loss decreased steadily as the fluence increased and levelled off at high fluence. The ¹⁶O(d,p₀)¹⁷O, ¹⁶O(d,p₁)¹⁷O^* and ¹²C(d,p₀)¹³C reactions were used for monitoring the evolution of the oxygen and carbon content as a function of the deuteron fluence. A monotonic decrease of the oxygen content with the increase of ion fluence was observed. At the highest fluence the oxygen depletion reached a value of about 75%. For carbon, a weak depletion was observed at fluence ranging from 2.5 × 10¹⁵ d/cm² to 1.0 × 10¹⁶ d/cm² followed by a levelling-off with a total loss around 20%.     

Temperature dependence of liquid Sn sputtering by low-energy He and D bombardment

Absolute sputtering yields of liquid tin from 240 to 420 °C due to irradiation by low-energy helium and deuterium have been measured. For ion energies ranging from 300 to 1000 eV, temperature enhancement of liquid tin sputtering was noted. These measurements were obtained by IIAX (the Ion-surface InterAction eXperiment) using a velocity-filtered ion beam at 45° incidence to sputter material from a liquid tin target onto deposition monitors. Sputtering yields from 500 eV ion bombardment at 45° incidence increase from 0.1 ± 0.03 and 0.019 ± 0.008 Sn particles/ion at room temperature, for He⁺ and D⁺ ions respectively, to 0.30 ± 0.12 and 0.125 ± 0.05 Sn particles/ion for 380 °C. Temperature enhanced sputtering has been seen in other liquid metals (namely lithium, tin-lithium, and gallium) using both ion beam and plasma irradiation.     

Damage accumulation in gallium nitride irradiated with various energetic heavy ions

In this work a study of damage production in gallium nitride via elastic collision process (nuclear energy deposition) and inelastic collision process (electronic energy deposition) using various heavy ions is presented. Ordinary low-energy heavy ions (Fe⁺ and Mo⁺ ions of 110 keV), swift heavy ions (²⁰⁸Pb²⁷⁺ ions of 1.1 MeV/u) and slow highly-charged heavy ions (Xeⁿ⁺ ions of 180 keV) were employed in the irradiation. Damage accumulation in the GaN crystal films as a function of ion fluence and temperature was studied with RBS-channeling technique, Raman scattering technique, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM).For ordinary low-energy heavy ion irradiation, the temperature dependence of damage production is moderate up to about 413 K resulting in amorphization of the damaged layer. Enhanced dynamic annealing of defects dominates at higher temperatures. Correlation of amorphization with material decomposition and nitrogen bubble formation was found. In the irradiation of swift heavy ions, rapid damage accumulation and efficient erosion of the irradiated layer occur at a rather low value of electronic energy deposition (about 1.3 keV/nm³), which also varies with irradiation temperature. In the irradiation of slow highly-charged heavy ions (SHCI), enhanced amorphization and surface erosion due to potential energy deposition of SHCI was found. It is indicated that damage production in GaN is remarkably more sensitive to electronic energy loss via excitation and ionization than to nuclear energy loss via elastic collisions.     

Morphological change in FePt nanogranular thin films induced by swift heavy ion irradiation

We have investigated morphology change of FePt nanogranular films (FePt)₄₇(Al₂O₃)₅₃ under irradiation with 210 MeV Xe ions. Here, electron tomography technique was extensively employed to clarify three-dimensional (3D) structure in irradiated specimens, in addition to conventional transmission electron microscopy (TEM) techniques such as bright-field observation and scanning TEM energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (STEM-EDX) analysis. The ion irradiation induces the coarsening of FePt nanoparticles with elongation along the beam direction. Electron tomography 3D reconstructed images clearly demonstrated that when the fluence achieves 5.0 × 10¹⁴ ions/cm², well-coarsened FePt balls have been formed on the irradiated surface, and the particles in the film interior have been deformed into rods along the ion trajectory. The alloy particles become inhomogeneous in composition after prolonged irradiation up to 1.0 × 10¹⁵ Xe ions/cm². The particle center is enriched with Pt, while Fe is slightly redistributed to the periphery.     

Deposition of polycrystalline Si thin films on glass substrates by direct negative Si ion beam deposition

Polycrystalline Si (Poly-Si) thin films were deposited on a glass substrate by direct negative Si (Si⁻) ion beam deposition. The glass substrate temperature was kept constant at 500 °C for all depositions. Prior to deposition, the ion energy spread and ion-to-atom arrival ratio were evaluated as a function of the ion beam energy.The Si⁻ ion energy spread was less than 10% regardless of the ion energy, while the ion-to-atom arrival ratio increased proportionally from 1.3 to 1.6 according to the ion beam energy.Atomic force microscopy images showed that a relatively rough surface was obtained at 50 eV of Si⁻ ion energy and it is also concluded that the Si⁻ ion beam irradiation at 50 eV is effective to deposit Si thin film with small grains as shown in Fig. 3.     

Production behavior of irradiation defects in vitreous silica under ion beam irradiation

The production behavior of irradiation defects in vitreous silica was studied by an in situ luminescence measurement technique under ion beam irradiation of H⁺ and He⁺. No apparent difference was observed in the luminescence spectra of specimens of different OH contents. The temperature dependence of the luminescence intensity at 280 and 460 nm was measured, and analyzed by considering the production mechanisms and kinetics of the irradiation defects of oxygen deficiency centers.     

Significance of Covariance Matrices in Nuclear Data Evaluation

Tritium decontamination using ultra violet (UV) lamp and laser was performed. Simulated co-deposited layer on tungsten substrate was deposited by C₂H₂ or C₂D₂ glow discharge. The co-deposited layer was irradiated to UV lights from a xenon excimer lamp (172 nm) or ArF excimer laser (193 nm) and the in-situ decontamination behavior was evaluated by a mass spectrometer. After the UV irradiation, the hydrogen concentration in the co-deposited layer was evaluated by elastic recoil detection analysis (ERDA) and the depth profile was analyzed by secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS).

For the co-deposited layer formed by C₂D₂ glow discharge, it was found that M/e 3 (HD) gas was released mainly during the UV lamp irradiation while both M/e 3 (HD) and M/e 4 (D₂) gases were detected during the UV laser irradiation. Though the co-deposited layer was not removed by UV lamp irradiation, almost all the co-deposited layer was removed by UV laser irradiation within 1 min. The ratio of hydrogen against carbon in the co-deposited layer was estimated to be 0.53 by ERDA and the number of photon needed for removing 1 fim thick co-deposited layer was calculated to be 3.7×10¹⁸ cm^-2 for the UV laser by SIMS measurement. It is concluded that C-H (C-D) bond on the co-deposited layer were dissociated by irradiation of UV lamp while the co-deposited layer itself was removed by the UV laser irradiation.     

Cross-section for D(p,p)D elastic scattering from 1.8 to 3.2 MeV at the laboratory angles of 155° and 165°

The D(p,p)D cross-sections for elastic scattering of proton on deuterium over incident proton energy range from 1.8 to 3.2 MeV at both laboratory angles of 155° and 165° were measured. A thin solid state target Ni/TiD_x/Ta/Al used for cross-section measurement was fabricated by firstly depositing layers of Ta, Ti and Ni film on the Al foil substrate of about 7 μm in turn using magnetron sputtering and then deuterating under the deuterium atmosphere. The areal density of metal element in each layer of film was measured with RBS analysis by using a 4.0 MeV ⁴He ion beam, while the areal density of the deuterium absorbed in the Ti film was measured with ERD analysis by using a 6.0 MeV ¹⁶O ion beam. The results show that the cross-sections of p-D scattering under this experimental circumstance were much enhanced over the Rutherford cross-section value. It was found that the enhancement increases linearly as the energy of the incident beam increases. The total uncertainty in the measurements was less than 7.5%.     

Mechanism of elongation of gold or silver nanoparticles in silica by irradiation with swift heavy ions

It has been reported that elongated Au nanoparticles oriented parallel to one another can be synthesized in SiO₂ by ion irradiation. Our aim was to elucidate the mechanism of this elongation. We prepared Au and Ag nanoparticles with a diameter of 20 nm in an SiO₂ matrix. It was found that Au nanoparticles showed greater elongated with a higher flux of ion beam and with thicker SiO₂ films. In contrast, Ag nanoparticles split into two or more shorter nanorods aligned end to end in the direction parallel to the ion beam. These experimental results are discussed in the framework of a thermal spike model of Au and Ag nanorods embedded in SiO₂. The lattice temperature exceeds the melting temperatures of SiO₂, Au and Ag for 100 ns after one 110 MeV Br¹⁰⁺ ion has passed through the middle of an Au or Ag nanorod.     

Mechanisms in the ion beam mixing of Al in Si

Ion beam mixing of Al in Si has been studied by implanting 100 keV ⁴⁰Ar⁺ ions into 300 Å Al overlayers on Si substrates. The mixing of the collisionally similar Al and Si atoms was studied with the nuclear resonance broadening technique. It is characterized to be proportional to the square root of ion fluence. The mixing is compared with that of Al in Si due to irradiation with 40 keV ²²Ne⁺ ions studied recently by us. Mechanisms which enhance the observed atomic mixings with about 5 times that expected for ballistic mixing have been studied by Monte Carlo simulation of the collisional cascades. The results indicate the need to revise the present model of the ballistic mixing by focusing more attention to the effect of low-energy impurity—matrix atom collisions.