Low-temperature structural relaxation in amorphized material was characterized by using extended X-ray absorption fine-structure spectroscopy and Raman spectroscopy. A relaxation-temperature dependent decrease in the mean value and asymmetry of the interatomic distance distribution was shown to be associated with the well-known reduction in bond-angle distribution. It was noted that, whereas the initial as-implanted state of amorphous material was ion-dose dependent, relaxation at 200C yielded a common ion-dose independent interatomic distance distribution. The heat release during structural relaxation, due to reductions in both bond length and bond-angle distortion, was calculated separately. The former exhibited an ion-dose dependence. The results provided strong support for the defect annihilation model of structural relaxation, and implied that the heat release upon structural relaxation should be implant-condition dependent.

Structural-Relaxation Induced Bond-Length and Bond-Angle Changes in Amorphized Ge. C.J.Glover, M.C.Ridgway, K.M.Yu, G.J.Foran, D.Desnica-Frankovic, C.Clerc, J.L.Hansen, A.Nylandsted-Larsen: Physical Review B, 2001, 63[7], 073204 (4pp)