Fracture analysis of surface exfoliation on single crystal silicon irradiated by intense pulsed ion beam

Surface exfoliation was observed on single crystal silicon surface irradiated by Intense Pulsed Ion Beam (IPIB). As the strong transient thermal stress impact induced by IP1B was mainly attributed to the exfoliation, a micro scale model combined with thermal conduction and linear elastic fracture mechanics was built to analyze the thermal stress distribution along the energy deposition process. After computation with finite element method, J integral parameter was applied as the criterion for crack development. It was demonstrated that the exfoliation initiation calls for specific material, crack depth and IPIB parameter. The results are potentially valuable for beam/target selection and IPIB parameter optimization.