The stopping and range of ions in matter is physically very complex, and there are few simple approximations which are accurate. However, if modern calculations are performed, the ion distributions can be calculated with good accuracy, typically better than 10%. This review will be in several sections: 

a)

A brief exposition of what can be determined by modern calculations.




b)

A review of existing widely-cited tables of ion stopping and ranges.




c)

A review of the calculation of accurate ion stopping powers.

The stopping and range of ions in solids

Erbium doped materials are of great interest in thin film integrated optoelectronic technology, due to their Er3+ intra-4f emission at 1.54 μm, a standard telecommunication wavelength. Er-doped dielectric thin films can be used to fabricate planar optical amplifiers or lasers that can be integrated with other devices on the same chip. Semiconductors, such as silicon, can also be doped with erbium. In this case the Er may be excited through optically or electrically generated charge carriers. Er-doped Si light-emitting diodes may find applications in Si-based optoelectronic circuits. In this article, the synthesis, characterization, and application of several different Er-doped thin film photonic materials is described. It focuses on oxide glasses (pure SiO2, phosphosilicate, borosilicate, and soda-lime glasses), ceramic thin films (Al2O3, Y2O3, LiNbO3), and amorphous and crystalline silicon, all doped with Er by ion implantation. MeV ion implantation is a technique that is ideally suited to dope these materials with Er as the ion range corresponds to the typical micron dimensions of these optical materials. The role of implantation defects, the effect of annealing, concentration dependent effects, and optical activation are discussed and compared for the various materials.

Erbium implanted thin film photonic materials

Publisher Summary A refractive index can be increased by ion implantation by changes in density and structure, by the addition of high-polarizability impurity ions, by a reduction of the plasma effect that increases the index and that is most important in the wavelength region far from the energy gap, and by absorption changing in the index in the region of the gap, that is, via the Kramers–Kronig relation. This chapter discusses the optical properties of implanted semiconductors, electrooptic components formed by ion implantation, general principles that determine most luminescent systems, effects of implantation temperature, luminescence centers in LiF-Mg-Ti radiation dosimeters, and use of line spectra in defect studies. In the LiF system, the luminescence bands are broad, and if alternative versions of the same complex exist, they cannot be resolved from the spectra. The addition, by implantation, of ions with incomplete inner electron shells opens up new possibilities as the lattice distortions of the free-ion energy levels are strongly perturbed by the defects in the neighborhood of the ion.

Optical Effects of Ion Implantation

Beams of electrons and ions are now fairly routinely focused to dimensions in the nanometer range. Since the beams can be used to locally alter material at the point where they are incident on a surface, they represent direct nanofabrication tools. The authors will focus here on direct fabrication rather than lithography, which is indirect in that it uses the intermediary of resist. In the case of both ions and electrons, material addition or removal can be achieved using precursor gases. In addition ions can also alter material by sputtering (milling), by damage, or by implantation. Many material removal and deposition processes employing precursor gases have been developed for numerous practical applications, such as mask repair, circuit restructuring and repair, and sample sectioning. The authors will also discuss structures that are made for research purposes or for demonstration of the processing capabilities. In many cases the minimum dimensions at which these processes can be realized are considerably larger than the beam diameters. The atomic level mechanisms responsible for the precursor gas activation have not been studied in detail in many cases. The authors will review the state of the art and level of understanding of direct ion and electron beam fabrication and point out some of the unsolved problems.

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Gas-assisted focused electron beam and ion beam processing and fabrication

The Monte Carlo Program TRIM.SP (sputtering version of TRIM) was used to determine sputtering yields and energy and angular distributions of sputtered particles in physical (collisional) sputtering processes. The output is set up to distinguish between the contributions of primary and secondary knock-on atoms as caused by in- and outgoing incident ions, in order to get a better understanding of the sputtering mechanisms and to check on previous theoretical models. The influence of the interatomic potential and the inelastic energy loss model as well as the surface binding energy on the sputtering yield is investigated. Further results are sputtering yields versus incident energy and angle as well as total angular distributions of sputtered particles and energy distributions in specific solid angles for non-normal incidence. The calculated data are compared with experimental results as far as possible. From this comparison it turns out that the TRIM.SP is able to reproduce experimental results even in very special details of angular and energy distributions.

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L.G. Haggmark

Papers

A Monte Carlo computer program for the transport of energetic ions in amorphous targets