EXPERIMENTAL TECHNIQUIES

CHAPTER – 4
ACCELERATOR TECHNIQUES
High voltage DC accelerators, Cascade generator, Van de Graaff accelerator, Tandem Van de Graaff
accelerator, Linear accelerator, Cyclotron, Synchrotron (Electron and proton), Ion sources –
Ionization processes, simple ion source, ion plasma source and RF ion source, Ion implantation –
techniques and profiles, Ion beam sputtering– principles and applications.

HIGH VOLTAGE DC ACCELERATOR

• A device for accelerating charged particles with an
electric field that is constant or varies slightly over the
entire particle acceleration time.
• Main elements:
(1) high-voltage generator
(2) source of charged particles
(3) accelerating system
(4) particle trajectory
WORKING:
• The voltage from the high-voltage generator is applied to the electrodes of the
accelerating system and generates an electric field inside the system.
• Charged particles from the source are accelerated by the field to an energy in electron
volts of
E = enu
o e - elementary electric charge
o n - number of elementary charges on the particle being accelerated
o u - voltage in volts (V) of the high-voltage generator.
• The pressure inside the accelerating system must not exceed mm Hg, since otherwise
the particles being accelerated will undergo considerable scattering by the molecules
of the gas.

Accelerating tube: (1) ring insulators, (2) metal electrodes, (3) coupling flanges
Advantages:

1. Produces only a small energy spread of the particle

2. relative energy spread of only 10-4 can be obtained easily

3. possibility of building high-power, high-efficiency units

4. low cost and compactness

Types:

o Electrostatic Accelerator

o Cascade Accelerator

o Resonance transformer Accelerator

o Pulsed high-voltage Accelerator

APPLICATION

❑ The internal structure of atomic nuclei

❑ The binding energies of nucleons (protons and neutrons) in atomic nuclei.

❑ The cross sections of nuclear reactions.

❑ The surface and spatial structure of solids.

❑ Preliminary acceleration of charged particles in large cyclic and linear accelerators

❑ To dope thin layers of semiconductors in the manufacture of electronic devices

CASCADE ACCELERATOR:

• Cock-Croft Walton Accelerator

• High voltage for accelerating the ions is
produced by the principle of voltage multiplier.
• A single stage (voltage doubler) consists of two
capacitors (C1 and C2) and two diodes (D1 and
D2).
• If Vm is the peak voltage of the ac input supplied by the transformer T, the voltage across
capacitors C2 (and C3) would be 2 Vm
• If the transformer produces 100 kilo Volts on the secondary, one gets a DC voltage of 200 k
Volts across C2.
• Six such voltage doubler stages will produce a high voltage of 1.2 Million volts.
 • This high voltage is applied to the high
voltage terminal, supported on insulating pillars
I and II
• Charged particles, obtained from a suitable
source (S) within an evacuated accelerating tube
III, are accelerated in this field.
• Accelerating tube is usually made up of
sections of glass, porcelain or other insulating
material joined by vacuum tight seals.
• The positive high voltage is applied to the
upper terminal.
• The negative lower terminal is grounded.
• In order to achieve a uniform voltage
gradient, a series of intermediate electrodes in
the form of metal rings are placed at regular
intervals and connected to intermediate voltages
• The simplicity of design and construction is the advantage of the cascade generator.
• However, the maximum available voltages are limited to about 4 million volts on account of
electrical break down of the surrounding atmosphere.
• The beam currents are however large.

VAN DE GRAFF GENERATOR:

o Van de Graaff , devised a method for obtaining higher voltages for particle
acceleration.
o It is a most powerful accelerator
PRINCIPLE
o The electric field inside a hollow metal conductor is zero.
o Therefore, any amount of charge can be transferred to the conductor from inside ,
irrespective of the voltage on it .
o Surface charge density is very large at the tip of sharp pointed objects and
consequently electrical discharge can readily take place in the vicinity of such objects
CONSTRUCTION
D=hollow conducting metallic dome
B=conveyer belt
P1=pully inside the hollow dome
P2=pully nearer to the ground
E=DC pwer supply
C1=comb like conductor connected to belt
C2=comb like conductor attached to domes
T=steel tanck
SF6=insulating gas
A=accelerating column
R=accelerating metal rings
I=accelerating ion beam
WORKING
High DC potential(+ve)at the bottom
→ positively charged comb shaped electrode
→ charge transfer between electrode and conveyer belt
→ conveyer belt become positively charged
→ also the electrode get positively charged
→ charges will transfer to the surface of the metallic cylinder
→ there is a potential difference between upper and lower part(about 5million volt)
→potential difference will accelerate the charged particle

TANDEM VAN DE GRAFF ACCELERATOR:

HISTORY OF TANDEM VAN DE GRAFF ACCELERATOR
• The Tandem Van De Graff accelerator is introduced to overcome the limitations of
the basic van de Graff accelerator.
• The limitations of Van De Graff Generator:
➢ We can increase the potential difference only up to that point where the rate of
transfer of charges equal to the rate of leakage of charges.
➢ This accelerator can only accelerate the positively charged particles like
protons and alpha particle.
• Here the acceleration is twice the that which Is obtained by the traditional van de
Graff accelerator.
• The accelerating tube is twice it’s length.
• The ion source usually emits negatively charged ions.
• The stripper.
These are the major differences from the traditional Van De Graff accelerator.
MAJOR COMPONENTS:
Conveyer belt(rubber),comb shaped Electrodes, hollow metallic cylinder, accelerating tube,
stripper, Ion source.
PRINCIPLE:
• When a charged conductor is brought internally in contact with an external hollow
metallic conductor, then all charges can be transferred to the outside surface of the
metallic conductor.
▪ There is a potential difference created by the working of conveyer belt between the
two comb shaped electrodes.
▪ The charges get accelerated through the tube due to the this potential
difference(w=qv).here the charges get accelerated twice due to the presence of
stripper.

Working of conveyer Belt

• The comb shaped electrode present at the bottom of the conveyer belt get positively
charged due to the high DC potential.
• Then there will be a charge transfer between the belt and electrode.so the negative
charges on the belt attracted towards the electrode.so the belt become positively
charged.
• The belt itself moving so that the upper electrode will be positively charged. Then by
the principle it will be transferred to the surface of hollow metallic cylinder.so there is
a high positive potential developed at that part. A potential difference formed between
that part and the upper or lower part (5 mV)
Working of accelerating tube and the stripper
• The upper part of the accelerating tube is at zero potential. At middle part it’s
potential is +v and it ends with a potential of zero.
• The ion source usually emits negatively charged ions like 𝐻 − ,𝐻𝑒 − ,𝑂− .these negative
ions get accelerated from zero potential to +v potential (w=qv=1 × 𝑣 = 1V eV. ) that
is near the stripper.
 • When they reached at the stripper, it strips away the excess electrons present in the
ions.so they will be neutral. But the neural atoms will not be accelerated by the
accelerator.so the stripper again strips one electron from them.
• Then the charges become 𝐻 + ,𝐻𝑒 + ,𝑂+ .so these ions again accelerated w=1V.here
these ions are doubly accelerated (1+1) V=2V eV. The energy also doubled here.
• The use of the stripper is that to strip away more electrons from the ions .so it
accelerated into more potential in the order of (1+n)V. n=no of charges on the ion.
ADVANTAGE OF THE TANDEM VAN DE GRAFF ACCELERATOR:
• A Tandem accelerator can provide more than twice the energy to the incoming
particles by using the same Van de Graff accelerator.
DISADVANTAGE OF TANDEM ACCELERATOR:
• A Tandem accelerator can only be used when the ions are negatively charged and they
can be stripped away of their electrons by stripper.
• The striper is made up of carbon foil or a container consist of gas at low pressure.

LINEAR RF ACCELERATOR
• The Linear Radio Frequency Accelerator is a kind of accelerator that can accelerate
charged particles to a very high velocity.
• This is an electromagnetic accelerator
• Here, the charged particles accelerated by making them travel through a potential
difference over and over again

PRINCIPLE
• If a charged particle is present in a region of electric field it gets accelerated.
• Suppose we have a charge q moving in a particular direction in an external electric field
of potential difference Vm its K.E. will be increased by an amount of qVm
• This external electric field can be created by placing it between two electrodes of opposite
potential.
CONSTRUCTION
• It consists of a source that ejects ions to be accelerated
• These ions are injected to a series of metallic, hollow, cylindrical open ended electrodes .
• Electrodes are linearly placed without touching each other
• One terminal of a high voltage RF oscillator is connected to the odd numbered electrodes
and other terminal to the even numbered electrodes
WORKING:
• Charged particles are emitted from the source
• Let the ions resch the gap between nth and (n+1)th cylinder.
• At the instant let the nth cylinder be positive charged and the (n+1)th cylinder negative,
then the ions will get an acceleration towards the latter cylinder and thereby gain an
energy qVm.
Here Vm is the maximum amplitude of the RF voltage
• The ions then enter the (n+1)th cylinder with a velocity vn+1
• Once inside the electrode, they move in a field free region and consequently their velocity
and energy remain constant.
• The ions drift in it, hence the cylinders are also called as drift tubes
If Ln+1 is the length of the (n+1)th tube, the time taken by the ions to travel the length of
the tube is,
t=Ln+1/vn+1
The period of the RF oscillator is adjusted to be equal to twice this time of traverse ie,
Ln+1/vn+1= τ/2
• Then the ions will reach the next gap between the cylinders at a time when the phase of
RF has changed by 180˚
• Now the electric field between the gap will be once again an accelerating one for the
positive ions. They will receive yet another increment in their energy by the same amount
as before.
• If N is the number of the accelerating gaps ,the total energy of the ions after coming out
of the accelerator is NqVm
• So,we can increase the maximum energy of the ions by increasing the number of
cylinders without increasing the value of RF to very high values.
 The energy of the ions can be written as ,
𝟏
mvn2 = E0 + NqVm
𝟐

• E0 is the initial energy with which ions enter the accelerating tubes.
• Ln/Vn = 𝝉/2 is a condition for proper acceleration at each stage.
• Length of a tube is given by the expression
𝝀
Ln =
𝟐𝒄
√𝑬𝟎 + 𝑵𝒒𝑽𝒎
𝜆 is the wavelength of the RF
• Now high frequency RF sources are available and the length of the electrodes have
become reasonable.
• The LINAC is more useful for electrons because their velocities reach ~c very rapidly and
thereafter their velocities are essentially constant and thus cylinder lengths also become
constant.

CYCLOTRON

• RF potentials of dee towards which the ions moving is at negative maximum with
respect to the other which accelerates ion and thus gain energy 𝑞𝑉𝑚

• Inside the dee, the ions move through a region free of electrical field(a field does not
exist inside hollow conductor)
→velocity of ions remains constant until they reach the gap between the dees at a point
almost diametrically opposite.

• Energy is now more than before → they

will traverse a semi circular trajectory (radius
more than the previous orbit)

• At the next gap, the ions receive an

additional energy increment if the phase of
the RF field is adjusted so that at the instant
the ions reach the next gap, the RF voltage
has advanced by exactly 180° in phase.

• The process is repeated.

The time taken by the ions to traverse the semi-circular trajectory inside a dee:

𝜋𝑟
𝑡=
𝑣

Increase in the velocity of the ions is compensated by the increase in the path length inside
the dee → time of traverse inside a dee is a constant.

Condition for the ions to receive acceleration at the gaps:

Within the time interval t, the RF field exactly reverses its polarity.

‘t’ should be just equal to one half of the RF period (𝜏),

𝒕 = 𝝉⁄𝟐

=> Angular frequency of the RF is given by:

𝒒𝑩
𝝎= called the cyclotron condition.
𝒎

• At this point ions are deflected away from their circular trajectory by E.F and allowed
to bombard a suitable target.

• The ion energy continuously increases until it reaches the periphery of dees

• Velocity of ions in the maximum orbit of dees:

 𝑩𝒒𝑹
𝒗𝒎𝒂𝒙 =
𝒎

• Maximum energy of ions:

𝟏 𝑩𝟐 𝑹𝟐 𝒒𝟐
( ) 𝒎𝒗𝒎𝒂𝒙 𝟐 =
𝟐 𝟐𝒎

R – Radius of maximum orbit at periphery of dees

• The field at the centre of the dees is greater than that at the periphery because of fringing of the
field.

• The magnetic field lines will be curved at the periphery, whereas they are straight lines at the
centre.

 an ion moving in the central plane of the magnet will experience only radial forces from
the magnetic field, as is evident om the Lorentz force law (as at point P in figure).

• Maxwell's equations

̅=𝟎
𝛁 × 𝑩

𝝏𝑩𝒛 𝝏𝑩𝒛
=
𝝏𝒓 𝝏𝒛
𝜕𝐵𝑧 𝜕𝐵𝑧
≠ 0 means ≠0
𝜕𝑟 𝜕𝑟

• Linear variation of B with z.

• Here Z-axis is along the central magnetic field → a radial magnetic field component also, which
leads a force component in the vertical plane.

• Focussing requirement → field decreases as the radius increases.

• This requirement is seen to be against the requirement for synchronism of the ions with the RF
field variations, i.e.; ω = qB/m.

• In fact, the ions will go out of phase with the RF.

• As a result, the highest available energy was limited to about 30 MeV.

Relativistic increase of mass with the velocity of the ions:

• As the ions go to larger orbits, their velocities increase and their mass also increases as per
Einstein's relation.

• Since ω = qB/m, in order to keep phase with the RF, the magnetic field B will have to be
increased in proportion to the increasing mass →magnetic field will have to increase towards the
outer orbits

• Otherwise, the RF frequency will have to be decreased in inverse proportion to the increasing
mass.

• If none of these variations are carried out, the ions will arrive at the accelerating gaps a little
earlier than the proper time to receive the full quantum of acceleration→they will lag behind the
RF.

• In this connection, Mc Millan suggested that if the oscillation frequency is continuously adjusted
to coincide with the decreasing frequency of revolution of the ions, the condition of phase
stability can be achieved.

Cyclotron delivers pulsed beams→Each pulse in the beam consists of ions which are accelerated in
one cycle of the RF(only those ions which arrive at the dees at the relative time to with respect to the
RF will remain in phase with the RF and finally come out of the accelerator.)

ION SOURCES

 Particle accelerators are used to accelerate charged ions of various elements, both
positive and negative, having varying degrees of ionization

 Primary requirement of particle accelerator ➔source of negatively or positively

charged ions of the requisite element
  Ion source ➔ consists of a mechanism for creating the charged ions from neutral
atoms and a means for extracting these ions with an initial velocity and with a
reasonable degree of focussing

 In order to produce an ion beam for an accelerator, ion sources require an ion
production region, and an ion extraction system

 Ion production normally takes place in a plasma, although ions maybe sputtered or
desorbed from a surface in some source types

 Types ➔ Simple ion source, Ion plasma source, RF ion source

IONIZATION PROCESSES:

Electron ionization
• It is the method in which energetic electron interact with solid or gas phase atoms or
molecules to produce ions.
• This is the first ionization techniques developed for mass spectrometry.
• Energy of electronics beam must be greater than eV.
• The differential ionization coefficient defines no of
ionizing collisions suffered by incident e moving unit
path length per pressure.
Thermionic Emission
• Ion source is gas diode.

Spark discharge
• A periodic low voltage spark is made in vacuum between two conducting or
semiconducting electrode.
• This is achieved by interrupting electrical circuits involving two electrodes
mechanically.
• At the time of breaking of contact a very high resistance is produced.
• The intense heat melts the solid and create ions.
• Eg: Cu+, Mo+
Surface Ionization
• Process in which atoms are desorped from the hot surface and in the process they are
ionized.
 • This occurs for atoms having low ionization energy.
• Useful for inorganic solid materials.
Thermal Ionization
• Random thermal motion lead to frequent collision and lead to ionization.
• The Saha equation deals with this process.
• As temperature increase collision increases and ions produced increases.
• Practically this method is not use
Ion impact ionization
• An energetic ion cause ionization by collision with atom when ion velocity is near to
velocity of electronics inside the atom.
• Energy of ion must be (M/m) eV
Ion beam sputtering
• Sputtering is a process where energetic ion beam strike a solid surface at an acute
angle and leads to the emission of secondary ion
Photo Ionization
• A photon can cause ionization of atoms if it's energy hn exceeds ionization energy eV.
• As the photon energy decreases above eV, probability for the ionization decreases.
• This process is different from ionization by electrons.
• Excess energy usually appears as kinetic energy.
• The threshold wavelengths for photo ionization is (12345/eV)AU.

Charge Exchange
• When a positive ion collide with a neutral atoms or gas molecules, exchange can take
place.
• That is neutral atoms or gas molecules picks up positive charge.
• However this is not a ion creating process.
Electron attachment/detachment
 • Highly electronegative compound can be used to form negative ions very easily as
illustrated.
SIMPLE ION SOURCES

▪ The operating principle is

based on impact ionization
mechanism
▪ A beam of neutral atoms
moves between the space
of two grid electrodes.
▪ Upper grid is made
negative with respect to the
lower grid by applying suitable voltage to these electrodes.
▪ A beam of high velocity electron beam is sent at right angles in horizontal direction.
▪ The energetic electrons collide with the atoms initialising the ionization of the atoms.
▪ The electrostatic field in space between the grid electrodes pull the electrons
downwards whereas the positive ions are pushed upwards from the ion beam which is
extracted outwards.
▪ To improve the efficiency magnets are placed . Electrons move in spiral path due to
this and the collision increases.
▪ Electrons are produced at cathode and enter the ion source through slit s1.
▪ Gas to be ionized also enters the region .
▪ Voltage is applied and the electrons are accelerated .
▪ They collide with the atoms and ionization takes place .
▪ Positive ions formed is repelled by R electrode and positive ion beam emerges out of
slit s3
▪ Unionised gas leave through the slit makes pressure low.
ION PLASMA SOURCE
• Another variation of ion source
• Working on the principle of collision ionization
in the ion plasma source
• Practical source that belonging to this category
is unoplasmatron
• Cathode is oxide coated
• It is heated by passing a large current of the
order of 30 amperes at low voltage of 3 V
• It is situated inside the plasma chamber
• A stream of the appropriate gas is let into the chamber through an opening (2) In the
bottom of the chamber to maintain the pressure of the order of 0.01 Torr
• A magnetic field is set up in the chamber by a cold winding (3)
• The cathode is grounded and a positive voltage of 300 volts is applied to the anode (4)
• An arc discharge ensures inside the plasma chamber
• An intermediate electrode (5) is given a negative bias relative to the cathode
• This provision ensures that a dense plasma filament is formed in the direction towards
the anode
• An axial magnetic field greatly enhances the plasma density and the extracted ion
intensity
• Such a plasma ion source is called duoplasmatron
• The ion current output varies from about 1mA to about 300mA
• Since a lot of power is dissipated in the ion source , intense cooling is required using
transformer oil or water
RF ION SOURCE
Basic components of an ion source
• Main chamber -insulating vessel

• Material-low pressure gas

• Ionization energy source-power from

alternating electric or magnetic fields

• Extraction system-DC electric field of

few kV magnitude
Ion source mechanism
• RF Frequency voltage utilised to produce a plasma of a low pressure gas.
• Ions extracted from plasma
Two methods
1. Alternating potential applied across two parallel metal plates. A discharge occurs between
the plates. Charges on metal plates creates electric field in discharge region.

2. Discharge created by current carrying coil. R.F field produced by alternating magnetic
field in discharge region.
Two excitation schemes
• Left: capacitive coupled system
• Right: inductively coupled system.

R.F DISCHARGE
• Formed in insulating vessel filled with required gas at pressure of 10-3to 10 -2torr.

• Frequency 10-30 MHz

• A few hundred watts of power consumption

• On account of collisions, reversal of electron momentum can take place. If this

happens when r.f field also changes polarity, electrons acquire sufficient K.E to cause
ionisation by impact.

• This leads to formation of plasma region inside the gas volume.

• Plasma in R.F discharge serves as a source of positive ions.

• ions extracted by dc electric field of a few kV applied to extraction electrode at the

edge of discharge region.

• Ion emitter-positive space charge cloud formed near electrode (virtual electrode).

• Electrons are protected from bombardment by means of constriction in the vessel.

• Extraction electrode protected by insulator screen made of quartz.

• Application of axial magnetic field can increase the ion current.

 • R.F source especially good for producing ions of light gases.

• Examples: 1H, 2D, 3T, 4He stc.

Advantages
• High ion efficiency

• Low power consumption

ION IMPLANTATION-TECHNIQUES AND PROFILES
• Impurity doping of the semiconductors alters their electrical properties
• In Early years…………… conventional techniques used for the doping of
semiconductors are diffusion , alloying ,epitaxial growth…………….lots of limitations
• with the development of particle accelerators ………….various beams of heavy ions
with variable energy became available
• since we have new technique….ion implantation
The process :-
• The process Ion implantation is a technique by which ion is introduced into a host
lattice
• Alternating the electrical or electronic properties of the material and causes most of
the chemical properties
• Behave chemically in many cases like a neutral atom introduced in to a lattice
• If an ion is electrically charged can be accelerated to any desired velocity…..
• Ion beam can be interact within a tiny volume of the material
• the resolution with which the Ion beam can be focused is typically less than
wavelength of visible light, therefore patterns of resolution better than that is possible
even with photographic processes is possible
• In Ion implantation atoms of the desired doping element are first ionized.
• Then accelerated to large velocities in a suitable particle accelerator and bombarded
against the substrate lattice .
• The accelerator ions enter the lattice by virtue of their kinetic energy
• Inside the substrate the ions are undergo elastic or inelastic interactions with atoms of
lattice and continuously lose their energy ,finally they come to rest at suitable
locations inside the lattice.
• Then there are in a position to alter the properties of the host lattice ………doping is
taken place …………the passage of the ions inside lattice also leads to the formation
of Crystal defects.
• This also will affect the electronic properties of the lattice
 • Introduction of impurity ions should lead to the creation of mobile charge Carriers,
namely electrons and holes.
• Silicon and Germanium are the most popular semiconducting materials .the elements
belonging to the group's 3A and 5A of the periodic table.
• These elements have one electron less than or one electron more as compared to the
Silicon and Germanium.
• Elements belong to group 3A when occupying a substitutional site inside the
semiconductor will readily accept an electron from the lattice. we get an extrinsic
semiconductor of the p-type.
• Similarly group 5A a journey to their excess electrons to the lattice resulting in n type
semiconductor
• Ions can also occupy called Interstitial sites inside lattice and energy level is created
in the band gap, the net effect will be same as n type or p-type
• The iron doses normally required to bring about appreciable changes in the properties
of a semiconductor lie in the range from 10 ^11 to 10 ^16 ions/ centimeter square ions
can be introduced to into a lattice depends on the relative size of the iron with respect
to the interatomic spacing of the lattice
Techniques of ion implantation :-
• Different techniques for introducing impurity ions into a host lattice there are
channeling and non channeling ……The dropping profiles will be different in the two
cases
• In any lattice certain crystallographic directions which there are fairly wide open
planes and channels among the rows of atoms
• if the incident ion is well collimated to within 0.10and is directed towards Such a
channel the ions are able to penetrate deeply into the crystal lattice before coming to
rest in interstitial or substitutional site this is called the process of channeling doping
• the depth of penetration of the ions is much larger than the in the case of non
channeling doping
• basically two types of interaction of the incident ions with the target atoms are
electronic collisions and nuclear collisions when ion strake the target material the
resulting energy loss processes
• the particle trajectories and the implanted impurity distributions can be determined
from the interaction mechanism
• one can calculate implanted dopant distribution during the cause of transvering the
material a series of single Ion to atom collisions will takes place ion loses a fraction
of a energy in each successive collision ,ultimately the ion will come to a stop the
actual depth at which the ions will stop
• The actual depth at which ions will stop is not a well defined quantity ……various
effects like a statistical fluctuations in the energy loss ,straggling effects ,etc….. lead
to a broadening of the impurity distribution vs. depth
 • there are many two types of profiles one is amorphous peak and the other is
channeling peak this two peaks are represented in the figure by the letters A and C
• The amorphous peak arises from the energy loss processes in a random oriented
crystal it is characterized by a gaussian shaped centered on a mean projected range
𝑅𝑝 and having standard division 𝜎
• the channeling peak as several times deeper than the amorphous peak it is similar but
has a sharper fall on the right side
• Rp increases as the ion energy increases thus to get deeper profiles we need to have
larger ion energies
• the real task before the Ion implantation technician is to obtain a desired dopant
profile by suitably combined the amorphous and channeling profiles
• to achieve the channeling Peak C requires precise alignment between parallel incident
beam and a open crystallographic direction of the host lattice do with 0.10
• it is necessary to limit the channeling effects so that the resulting profile is decided by
the amorphous peak alone
• the various techniques used for ensuring this condition
1. implanting through an oxide layer that causes scattering of the beam
2. misorienting the beam with respect to all crystallographic Axes or planes
3. damaging the the surface layers to destroy the crystallinity there
Ion implantation profiles :-
• The theoretical calculations lead to the following expression for the concentration
profile of the implanted impurity ions as a function of depth X below the surface and
the time of irradiation t

• this profile guassian whose peak is a projected on mean range and whose Peak
concentration varies linearly with time for comparison the similar relation for
comparison similar relation thermal diffusion process is

𝐷𝑐 is the diffusion constant and t is diffusion time

• the profile for the thermal diffusion is peaked at the surface and its width is time
dependent, for ion implantation the profile is time independent
• the higher energies of the implanted ions as compared to the thermal energy of the
diffuse atoms cause them to penetrate a large depth
• the lower end of this range has been utilised for controlling threshold voltages in
MOSIC s and to create low concentration base region in transistor etc
 • the higher end has been used to alter the stochiometry or band gap of compound
materials or to all the metallurgically composed of alloys all near to the surface of
materials
• methods of profiling measurement
• capacitance voltage measurement
• rutherfordscattering or nuclear reaction techniques
• radiotractermethod
• differential hall method measurement
• capacitance voltage measurement
Advantages and limitations
• the advantage of Ion implantation arise mainly from the non thermal and charged
particle nature of the process these are
1. any potential dopant can be introduced into any substrate material at any temperature for
study
2. 2.Being a non thermal process there is possibility of exiting the thermal diffusion rates
one can achieve better uniformity, also there is better control over the depth implantation
3. the Ion beams can be directly precisely ,hence the sharper edges can be obtained for
patterns also smaller device dimensions are possible
4. 4.even mass less device fabrication is possible since the charged ions can be deflected in a
magnetic field
5. 5.being a vacuum process it is cleaner however the possibility of damage of the cell was
due to the ion bombardment is a serious limitation
ION BEAM SPUTTERING
Principle
• Sputtering: - It is a process which take place when an energetic beam of charged ions
bombarded on the surface of a substrate.
• It is the process of kinetic ejection of atoms from the surface of substrate, primarily due to
the momentum exchange between the incoming ions and the atoms of the lattice
• –Process basically takes place from the surface of substrate
• –The ejected particles can be neutral atoms, or positive and negative ions as also reflected
incident ions
• –These particles are SPUTTERED PARTICLES
• Simultaneous with the process of sputtering, other phenomenon like electron emission ,
radiation damage , doping and chemical can take place.

Sputtering yield
•It is the average no: of atoms ejected from the target per incident ion
•Yield of the sputtering is plotted against the incident ion energy
•Above the threshold, the yield increases with the incident ion energy and reaches a
saturation value and then falls off at a higher energies beyond 30keV or so.

•The decreasing tendency Due to increasing penetration depth

•For heavier ions , saturation region occurs at higher energies

•Range of energies ==== 8keV to 15 keV

•The sputtering yield depend upon the angle of sputtering also

•Yield has a maximum around 70 degrees

•Angular distribution of the sputtered particles approximate to Gaussian with half widths ~
20- 30 degrees

•The energy distribution of the particle depend very much on the angle of ejection and also
increases with the mass of the incident ions.
•The rate of sputtering can be calculated by considering the volume removed per atom

•Thickness (t) in cm removed per second,

M= mass of the target atom, S= area of the target, ρ= density of the target, Ji= ion beam
current