Modification of Ion Implanted or Irradiated Single Crystal Sapphire

Key words: 
• ion implantation /
• heavy ion irradiation /
• Al2O3 /
• photoluminescence spectra /
• transmission electron microscopy analysis

Abstract: Single crystal sapphire （Al2O3 ） samples were implanted at 600 K by He, Ne and Ar ions with energy of 110 keV to doses ranging from 5 × 10^16 to 2× 10^17 ion/cm^2 or irradiated at 320 K by ^208Pb^27＋ ion with energy of 1.1 MeV/u to the fluences ranging from 1 × 10^12 to 5 × 10^14 ion/cm^2. The modification of structure and optical properties induced by ion implantation or irradiation were analyzed by using photoluminescence（PL） and Fourier transformation infrared spectrum（FIR） spectra and transmission electron microscopy（ TEM ） measurements. The PL measurements showed that absorption peaks located at 375,413 and 450 nm appeared in all the implanted or irradiated samples, the PL intensities reached up to the maximum for the 5 × 10^16 ion/cm^2 implanted samples. After Pb-ion irradiation, a new peak located at 390 nm formed. TEM analyses showed that small size voids,（1--2 nm） with high density were formed in the region from the surface till to about 100 nm in depth and also large size Nebubble formed in the Ne-doped region. From the obtained FTIR spectra, it was found that Pb-ion irradiation induced broadening of the absorption band in 460-510 cm^-1 and position shift of the absorption band in 1 000- 1 300 cm^- 1 towards to high wavenumber. The possible damage mechanism in single crystal sapphire induced by energetic ion implantation or irradiation was briefly discussed.