Facile synthesis of highly stable a-Si by ion implantation of low-keV H isotopes

It is experimentally shown that silicon is easily amorphized by low-keV H ions at the relatively high temperature of 150 K and for an ion fluence equivalent to <1 DPA (displacement per atom). The a-Si layer is much more stable against recrystallization than a-Si produced by other ions and more stable against chemical modification than c-Si that is H-implanted at room temperature. These results are unexplained by the current atomic collision theory, including molecular-dynamics simulations, but they demonstrate the stabilizing effect of dangling bond passivation by H atoms in postulated, metastable, amorphous droplets.