TEM Analysis of Blisters on Silicon Surface Formed by Hydrogen Ion Irradiation

It has been known that blistering occurs in a metal surface long exposed to high-energy gas molecules or ions, such as plasma facing materials. The present authors found that the blistering takes place even in hard and brittle semiconductors and ceramics by gas ion (D+ and He+) irradiation. In the present study we conducted grazing incidence and cross-sectional transmission electron microscope (GIEM and XTEM) observations of the blisters on a H+-irradiated silicon surface. The curvature of hydrogen-blister skin is smaller than that of D-blister reported in a previous study. This suggests that the displacement damage by nuclear stopping plays an important role in the large plastic deformation in the blistering. XTEM observation revealed that the blister skin contains a high density of lattice defects. With these result in mind the formation mechanism of hydrogen-irradiation-induced blistering is discussed.