Thermal Desorption Studies of $Ar^{+}$ Implanted Silicon

Thermal desorption spectrometry measurements were performed for Ar implanted Si samples. Implantation energy $E_{i}$ varied in the range 85-175 keV. The release of implanted Ar in two steps was observed in the temperature range 930-1300 K: the relatively narrow peak at lower temperature ( ≈ 930 K for implantation fluence 5 × $10^{16}$ $cm^{-2}$) is due to the release of Ar from the agglomerations (bubbles) while the broader peak observed for higher temperatures ( ≈ 950 K for implantation fluence 5 × $10^{16}$ $cm^{-2}$) comes from Ar atoms diffusing out of the sample. Inverse order of peaks is observed compared to the results for lower energy implantations (< 50 keV). Analyzing the thermal desorption spectra collected for different heating ramp rates enabled estimation of the desorption activation energy (2 eV for $E_{i}$ = 85 keV and 1.7 eV for $E_{i}$ = 115 keV).