MeV Ion Implantation in Electronic Materials

Using MeV ions for the modification of electronic materials offers a number of advantages: minimizing surface damage; implantation into completed devices – for example, through contacts or photoresist layers; producing controlled radiation damage for flux pinning where the ions pass completely through the sample and thus do not modify its chemical nature; and enhancing the electronic excitation of the target material versus collisional damage, as in adhesion enhancement processes. In all cases, however, one requires a detailed understanding of the new damage mechanisms that occur and how they can be modified in a controlled way by annealing. In this report I shall present examples from a number of our experiments: resistivity and index of refraction modification in semiconductors; adhesion enhancement; mixing of multilayer structures; and modification of the electronic properties of insulators and superconductors.