Ion bombardment, an
experimental technique widely used for
fabricating semiconductor devices, involves sputtering of atoms from
target materials. The origin of sputtering includes a complex interplay
of the atomic properties of the interacting atoms. This becomes more
complex if the target is a compound material. Hence, detail atomic
properties are necessary to be studied to find out the root of a
possible preferential sputtering. Here, SiGe is taken as a model
compound material to study such phenomenon. It is observed that the
sputtering yield is nonlinear
and sputtering of the individual components also show nonlinear
behavior. Further reading Differential
sputter yields in Si1−xGex M. Zubaer Hossain, Jonathan B. Freund, and H. T. Johnson, J. Appl. Phys. 103, 073508(2008) |