Applied Surface Science, Vol.349, 123-128, 2015
Modification of mechanical properties of Si crystal irradiated by Kr-beam
The application of ion-beam irradiation in fabrication of structures with micro-/nanometer scale has achieved striking improvement. However, an inevitable damage results in the change of mechanical properties in irradiated materials. To investigate the relation between mechanical properties and ionirradiation damages, nanoindentation was performed on crystalline silicon irradiated by Kr-beam with an energy of 240 keV. Modified Young's modulus and nanohardness, provided from the indentation, indicated fluence dependence. Stopping and range of ions in matter (SRIM) calculation, transmission electron microscopy (TEM) observation, and Rutherford backscattering-channeling (RBS-C) measurement were utilized to understand the irradiation effect on mechanical properties. In addition, the longitudinal size of the phase transition region induced by indentation was firstly evaluated based on the depth profile of modified nanohardness. (C) 2015 Elsevier BY. All rights reserved.