Automated Implanter Endstation for Combinatorial Materials Science with Ion Beams

The discovery, understanding and optimization of new complex functional materials requires combinatorial synthesis techniques and fast screening instrumentation for the measurement of the samples. In this contribution the synthesis of buried II–VI compound semiconductor nanocrystals by ion‐implantation in SiO2 on silicon will be presented. For that we constructed a computer controlled implanter target end station, in which a 4‐inch wafer can be implanted with a lateral pattern of distinct dose, composition or energy combinations. The chemical reaction of the constituents is initiated either during the implantation process or ex‐situ by a rapid thermal process, where a reactive atmosphere can be applied. The resulting optical photoluminescence properties of the individual fields of the pattern can then be screened in rapid succession in an optical cryostat into which the whole wafer is mounted and cooled down. In this way, complex interdependences of the physical parameters can be studied on a single wafer...