Ion dechanneling studies of defects in an ion-beam-synthesized epilayer sandwich system: Si(111)/CoSi₂/Si

Abstract

Rutherford backscattering and channeling studies have been performed on an ion-beam-synthesized heteroepitaxial Si(111)/CoSi₂(68 nm)/Si(88 nm) sample. The dependence of dechanneling probability on the incident ion energy has been determined to characterize the defects at the buried interfaces and in the epilayers. While the defects at the bulk Si/CoSi₂ interface have been identified to be misfit dislocations, the scattering behavior from the top Si/CoSi₂ interface and the Si epilayer appears to be that of stacking faults. The incident ion energy dependence of the direct backscattering yield confirms these results.