ABSTRACT
CONTENTS 18.1 Introduction ...................................................................................................................... 533 18.2 Swift Heavy Ion-Induced Structural Modifications: A Review of Some
Phenomenological Models.............................................................................................. 534 18.2.1 Displacement Spike ............................................................................................ 534 18.2.2 Ion Explosion Spike ............................................................................................ 535 18.2.3 Thermal Spike Model ......................................................................................... 536
18.2.3.1 Philosophical Origins.......................................................................... 536 18.2.3.2 Thermodynamical Model ................................................................... 536 18.2.3.3 What about the Phonon Contribution?............................................ 537 18.2.3.4 Some Quantitative Development of the Thermal Spike................ 538
18.2.4 Nonexhaustive List of Some Other Models .................................................... 539 18.3 Heavy Ion-Induced Phase Transition ........................................................................... 540
18.3.1 Amorphization under Swift Heavy Ion Irradiation ...................................... 540 18.3.2 Electronic Excitation-Induced Crystallization ................................................ 540
18.4 Brief Summary of Experimental Results ...................................................................... 541 18.4.1 Growth of Silicon Bumps at the SiO2-Si Interface under Swift
Heavy Ion Irradiation......................................................................................... 541 18.4.2 Discontinuous Ion Tracks in SiO2-Si after Grazing-Angle Heavy
Ion Irradiation ..................................................................................................... 542 18.4.3 Conclusions of Experimental Studies .............................................................. 544
18.5 Single Ion-Induced Structural Modifications and Consequences for Integrated MOS Device Reliability ......................................................................... 544
18.6 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................ 546 References.................................................................................................................................... 547
A charged particle entering matter interacts both with the surrounding atoms and electrons. A part or all of its energy is then transferred to the electrons or converted into displacement damage, depending on the kinetic energy of the particle. Until recently, the
to ionization phenomenon that does not induce any atomic motion. However, some recent studies have pointed out that structural modifications could even occur at very high energy via electronic interactions [1,2]. From a historical point of view, experiments have already shown that damage may be
induced through ionization processes. In 1912, Wilson observed alpha particle tracks using a cloud chamber [3]. The ionizing path of the ion was revealed by the formation of condensed droplets. The first photography of fission fragment tracks obtained by means of a Wilson chamber was reported in 1939 [4,5]. An important stage was reached in the middle of the twentieth century with the development of the electron microscope. With a spatial resolution about a few tens of nanometers, this tool allows the investigation of matter at the atomic scale. The first direct observation of damage tracks of fission fragments was published by Silk and Barnes in 1959 [6]. From that time, the understanding of such specific interactions became of major interest. Three physicists of the General Electric research laboratory, Fleischer, Price, and Walker, succeeded in quantifying the diameter of 235U fission fragment tracks in mica. They concluded that the damaged region around the ion path could reach a diameter of 150 Å [7]. Consequently, they realized that observing such small tracks may quickly became a real technological challenge. For that reason, they decided to add to their experimental process a new stage comprising a chemical enhancement of the tracks [8]. They thereby showed that a single ion track could be enlarged by a chemical etching process to a diameter of 0.5 mm [9].
