Comparison between the reversal temperature of IBIEC-IBIIA transition and critical temperatures of damage formation in ion irradiated InP and InAs

The critical temperature of damage formation in crystalline semiconductors, T-C, and the reversal temperature T-R of the ion beam induced epitaxial cr ystallization (IBIEC)-ion beam induced interfacial amorphization (IBIIA) tr ansition are studied for ion irradiated InP and InAs. It is shown that both temperatures, T-C and T-R, depend on the number of primary displacements p er ion and unit depth, N-displ*, and on the dose rate j according to (N-dis pl*)(2) j similar to exp(-E-a/kT(C/R)) That means this relation which was f irst derived to explain T-R data of ion irradiation into amorphous/crystall ine interfaces in Si, holds well to describe the critical temperature of da mage formation in crystalline semiconductors, too. The values of E-a estima ted from the dependences of T-C and T-R given above are almost the same. Th is is related to the fact that both processes are dominated by the thermal mobility of point defects. T-C was found to be always less than T-R, i.e., amorphization at an amorphous crystalline interface proceeds at somewhat hi gher temperatures where amorphization of crystalline material is no longer possible. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.