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1. Introduction
The study of interaction of swift heavy ions with semiconductor single crystals is very important both for the fundamental investigations of radiation effects in condensed matter and for the creation of ion tracks in semiconductor materials, which can be used in modern nanotechnologies of electronics. Several theoretical models have been proposed in order to explain the appearance of latent tracks induced in matter by the slowing down process of incident ions in the electronic stopping power regime. Two of the most developed models are based on either the thermal spike approach [1, 2] or the coulomb explosive spike mechanism [3, 4]. The thermal spike model assumes that the electronic excitation energy is first transferred to the atoms
followed by a strong local rise of the lattice temperature up to (and higher than) the melting point. In this case, a latent track results from rapid solidification of a cylinder of molten matter [1, 2]. The present paper aims at proposing a detailed approach of the use of the thermal spike model in order to describe quantitatively the amorphous track radii induced in crystalline semiconductors by swift heavy ions. The knowledge of experimental track radii of a given semiconductor, in our study InP allows determining the electron-phonon coupling constant g which is unknown in this material.
Corresponding author: Soraya Kadid, Ph.D., research field: interaction of swift heavy ions with materials. E-mail: Kadidsora2000@yahoo.fr.
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subsystem and into the lattice subsystem. A time, dependent transient thermal process coupling these two systems is expressed using a cylindrical geometry whose axis is the ion path:
Ce Ca e 1 (rKe (e ) e ) g(e a ) + A(r, t ) = r t r r a 1 ( rK a (a ) a ) + g ( e a ) = r r r t
(1) (2)
Ci, Ki and Ti are the specific heat, the thermal conductivity and the temperature, respectively, i is referring either to the electrons (e) or to the lattice atoms (a), g is the electron-phonon interaction [5] and A(r, t) is the energy density deposited by an incident ion in the target electrons.
Radius (nm)
150000
100000
50000
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
0 0 2x10
-14
4x10
-14
6x10
-14
Time (s)
Fig. 1 Evolution of the electronic temperature versus time at several radii from the ion path for g = 0.9 1011 Wcm-3K-1. The initial conditions are: beam energy 5.7 MeV/amu, initial temperature 300 K.
Radius (nm)
1500
Tm
1000
500
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
0 0
1x10
-12
2x10
-12
3x10
-12
Time (s)
Fig. 2 Evolution of the lattice temperature versus time at several radii from the ion path for g = 0.9 1011 Wcm-3K-1. The initial conditions are: beam energy 5.7 MeV/amu, initial temperature 300 K.
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track radii versus electronic stopping power and the electronic stopping power threshold. Figs. 3 and 4 show the latent track radius evolution versus (dE/dx)e for two different values of the electron-phonon coupling g = 0.9 1011 Wcm-3K-1 and 1.8 1011 Wcm-3K-1 and two different beam energies (5.7 and 10 MeV/amu). In these figures, the comparison between the calculated radii and the experimental ones is given for InP. The Rexp values are taken from Refs. [6-8]. In a first approach the best fit is realized
for g = 0.9 1011 Wcm-3K-1 assuming that the formation of a latent track results of a rapid quench of the melt phase. The threshold value for melting equal 27 3 keV/nm not far from the experimental result (20-25 keV/nm) [9, 10]. To confirm our results, Figs. 5 and 6 show the good agreement, between our calculations and the experimental data for g = 0.9 1011 Wcm-3K-1. Therefore, this value is a reasonable estimate value of the electron-phonon coupling in InP.
12
10
2 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40
Fig. 3 Latent track radii Rt (nm) in InP at 300 K as a function of the electronic stopping power (dE/dx) keV/nm. The experimental points correspond to various ion energies in the range 0.4-10 MeV/amu. The calculated curves have been plotted for two values of the electron phonon coupling g at the beam energy E = 5.7 MeV/amu.
12
10
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
Fig. 4 Latent track radii Rt (nm) in InP at 300 K as a function of the electronic stopping power (dE/dx) keV/nm. The experimental points correspond to various ion energies in the range 0.4-10 MeV/amu. The calculated curves have been plotted for two values of the electron phonon coupling g at the beam energy E = 10 MeV/amu.
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12
10
2 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40
Fig. 5 Latent track radii Rt (nm) in InP at 300 K as a function of the electronic stopping power (dE/dx)e. The experimental points correspond to various ion energies in the range 0.4-10 MeV/amu. The calculated curves have been plotted for g = 1.8 1011 Wcm-3K-1.
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
Fig. 6 Latent track radii Rt (nm) in InP at 300 K as a function of the electronic stopping power (dE/dx)e. The experimental points correspond to various ion energies in the range 0.4-10 MeV/amu. The calculated curves have been plotted for g = 0.9 1011 Wcm-3K-1.
5. Conclusions
It is shown that the experimental data obtained for InP can be described by the thermal spike model. The most important input parameter: the electron-phonon coupling constant g, is determined from available experimental data on ion track formation in InP. The calculated track radii vary with ion energy E and thus with (dE/dx)e; further, they are reasonable and correlate well with experimental results if g is equal to 0.9 1011 Wcm-3K-1. The threshold value deduced for melting is equal to 27 3 keV/nm. Within the
measurement errors near, this value coincides with the experimental results published. Our results indicate that the thermal spike model can adequately describe the track formation in semiconductor crystals irradiated by swift heavy ions
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank Dr. M. Marcel (CIMAP, Caen, France) for useful discussions.
References
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