Modified structure of sapphire with 51V ion implantation followed by thermal annealing

Damage growth and its recovery behavior are compared in sapphire (0001) samples implanted with 51V+at low temperatures and room temperature by employing Rutherford Back-Scattering (RBS)/channeling and RBS/16O(d, α)14N nuclear reactions/channeling techniques. The in-situ analysis using a dual beam analysis system indicates that the damage growth at room temperature (RT) is not the simple accumulation of the same defect-profile at the initial stage of implantation. The damage introduction at low temperature (36 K) induces the amorphous layer after 7.4×1014 cm−2 implantation. The depth amorphized is about 60% of the projected range and rather close to the peak position of defect-profile at the initial stage of RT implantation. The re-growth of amorphous layer is caused more easily in heavily implanted sapphire. The redistribution of implanted 51V atoms into surface results in the coherent precipitation of vanadium oxide. The samples implanted at RT change into the mixed oxide after annealing through the preferential distortion of the oxygen sublattice.