X-ray topographic determination of the absence of lateral strains in ion-implanted silicon

The lattice-to-amorphous transformation of Si caused by implantation of silicon ions results in volumetric expansion. The expansion is primarily in a direction normal to the substrate surface. We infer this from x-ray topographic analysis where no evidence of plastic flow in the region bounding the implanted volume was detected. By measuring the unidirectional expansion, the average density of the amorphous Si layer is found to be 3.8 to 5.6% smaller than that of crystalline Si. © 1972 The American Institute of Physics.