Efficient production of silicon-on-insulator films by co-implantation of He+ with H+

The thin film separation process with H⁺ proceeds by both chemical interactions (bond breaking and internal surface passivation) and physical interaction (gas coalescence, pressure, fracture) of implanted H⁺ with the Si substrate. It is difficult to isolate the contribution of each component to the overall process using implantation of H only. In this work, we have combined H ⁺ and He⁺ gas implantation to decouple the physical and chemical contributions to the blistering and thin film separation processes. We have observed that combination of H and He gas implants results in a synergistic effect that allows the threshold dose for both processes to be significantly reduced