Sputtering of Silicon Surface during Low-Energy High-Dose Implantation with Silver Ions

We report on the results of first practical observations of sputtering of the Si surface during the implantation with Ag+ ions with an energy of 30 keV depending on irradiation dose D in the interval from 2.5 × 1016 to 1.5 × 1017 ion/cm2 for a fixed value of ion beam current density J = 8 μA/cm2, as well as for variation of J = 2, 5, 8, 15, and 20 μA/cm2 at constant D = 1.5 × 1017 ion/cm2. In the former case, the thickness of the porous Si (PSi) layer being sputtered increases monotonically to 50 nm at the maximum value of D; in this case, the effective sputtering ratio of the implanted Ag : PSi layer is 1.6. We have also established that the thickness of the sputtered layer increases with current density J.