Increasing medium-range order in amorphous silicon with low-energy ion bombardment

File(s)
Date
2003Author
Gerbi, J. E.
Voyles, P. M.
Treacy, M. M. J.
Gibson, J. M.
Abelson, J. R.
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
We have observed the existence of medium?range order in amorphous silicon with the fluctuation
electron microscopy technique. We hypothesize that this structure is produced during the highly
nonequilibrium deposition process, during which nuclei are formed and subsequently buried. We test this hypothesis by altering the deposition kinetics during magnetron sputter deposition by
bombarding the growth surface with a variable flux of low-energy ~20 eV! Ar1 ions. We observe that medium?range order increases monotonically as the ion/neutral flux ratio increases.We suggest
that this low-energy bombardment increases adspecie surface mobility or modifies local structural rearrangements, resulting in enhanced medium?range order via increases in the size, volume fraction, and/or internal order of the nuclei.
Subject
medium range order
amorphous silicon
fluctuation electron microscopy
Permanent Link
http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1793/63390Type
Article
Description
http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.1578164
Citation
Applied Physics Letters 82, 3665 (2003)