Dwell-Time Dependence of the Defect Accumulation in Focused Ion Beam Synthesis of CoSi₂

Cobalt disilicide microstructures were formed by 70 keV Co2+ focused ion beam implantation into Si(111) at substrate temperatures of about 400°C and a subsequent two step annealing (600°C, 60 min and 1000°C, 30 min in N2). It was found that the CoSi2 layer quality strongly depends on the pixel dwell-time and the implantation temperature. Only for properly chosen parameters countinuous CoSi2 layers could be obtained. Scanning electron microscopy and Rutherford backscatting/channelling investigations were carried out combined with a special preparation technique damage was investigated as a function of dwell-time (1-250 µs) and target temperature (355-415°C). The results show that the irradiation damage increases with the dwell-time.The Si top layer was ammorphization for longer dwell-times although the substrate temperature was always above the critical temperature for amorphization of about 270°C according to the model of Morehead and Crowder. For the high current density of a focused ion beam (1-10 A/cm2) the damage creation reate is higher than the rate of dynamic annealing.