An XPS study to investigate the dependence of carbon ion fluences in the formation of buried SiC

Abstract A detailed XPS analysis has been performed to observe the effect of carbon ion fluences in the formation of β-SiC by ion implantation. Carbon ion fluences of 1 × 10 17 , 2 × 10 17 , 5 × 10 17 , and 8 × 10 17  atoms/cm 2 at an ion energy of 65 keV have been used to implant Si at room temperature. The implanted samples were annealed at 1100 °C for 1 h in a mixture of Ar 96% and H 2 4%. The compositional depth profile along with the change in the chemical state of the implanted carbon and silicon in the annealed samples has been measured. The effect of ion fluences in the formation of SiC has been discussed in reference to binding energy shifts and integrated peak intensities of C 1s and Si 2p signals. It has been observed that the implanted carbon is totally consumed to make Si–C bonds for samples implanted at fluences of 1 × 10 17 , 2 × 10 17 , and 5 × 10 17  atoms/cm 2 . However, for the sample at a fluence of 8 × 10 17  atoms/cm 2 , a portion of the implanted carbon is found to be in the form of C–C bonds in the compositional depth profile peak position.