Ion beam induced crystallization in BP

Ion beam induced epitaxial crystallization of surface amorphous layers has been investigated in BP 〈100〉. Recrystallization of the amorphous layer produced with 70 keV Ar⁺ ion implantation was induced by the subsequent 400 keV Kr⁺ ion irradiation in the sample temperature range of 300-400°C. Epitaxial regrowth occurred at temperatures much below those required for the pure thermal process. A large dechanneling yield due to Kr irradiation was observed in a P-sublattice. The crystal regrowth rate monitored by RBS-channeling technique showed a linear dependence on the ion irradiation fluence. The activation energy of ion beam induced crystal regrowth in BP was determined to be 0.17 ± 0.06 eV. The observed regrowth rate is smaller by a factor of about 4 than in Si 〈111〉, in which the ion beam induced crystallization was observed for reference under the same experimental condition.