Growth of amorphous SiC film on Si by means of ion beam induced mixing

Focused ion beam (FIB)-induced ion mixing was studied in a C/Si/C/Si/C/Si substrate multilayer structure sample by means of Auger electron spectroscopy (AES) depth profiling, and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The multilayer sample was irradiated with Ga+ ions using focused ion beam (FIB) at room temperature. The ion energy and fluence of the ion irradiation varied in the range of 10–30 keV and 10–120 × 1015 ions/cm2, respectively. The ion irradiation induced a slightly asymmetric intermixing of the top C and Si layers, which could be modeled by the TRIDYN code. During ion mixing, part of the intermixed C and Si atoms reacted, forming amorphous SiC. The amount of SiC depends on the square root of the Ga+ fluence. Thus, amorphous SiC thin film (with Ga contamination) with thickness in the nanometer range can be produced by means of FIB.