Dynamics of the plasma and thermal waves in surface-modified semiconductors (invited)

Abstract:  Abstract Quantitati ve analysis of ion-implanted layers in Si using the damage-based theoretical modeling and experimental results obtained with the photomodulated reflectance (PMR) technique are described. Our theoretical approach [A. Salnick and J. Opsal, J. Appl. Phys. 91, 2874 (2002)] combines calculations of the ion-induced damage depth profiles in semiconductors with the corresponding scaling of the thermal and carrier plasma wave parameters followed by the calculation of the photothermal response from a multilayered sample. Comparison of the simulated theoretical dose dependencies with experimental PMR amplitude and phase data allows us to study the dynamics of the thermal- and carrier-plasma waves in an ion-implanted semiconductor. The regions of the plasma, thermal, and optical component dominance are defined and the photothermal signal behavior is analyzed in the low, intermediate, and high implantation dose ranges. It is shown that the pump and probe beam wavelengths control the nature of the resulting photothermal signal (thermally or plasma dominated) at low doses while self-annealing effects play a significant role in the photothermal signal behavior at high implantation doses. © 2003 American Institute of Physics.