The Role of Fe on the Crystallisation of a-Si3N4 from Amorphous Si-N Formed by Ion Implantation

Ion implantation into Si has been used to produce near-surface, amorphous Si-N layers with the nitrogen content both below and exceeding Si3N4 stoichiometry. Iron has been introduced into some of these layers to study the effect of Fe on subsequent crystallisation to α-Si3N4. Rutherford backscattering and channeling, X-ray diffraction and cross-sectional transmission electron microscopy have been used to analyse these implanted samples before and after annealing to 1000°C. These results provide considerable insight into M-Si3N4 formed by another non-equilibrium mixing process, namely reactive ball milling or mechanochemistry