Thermal annealing was usually used to restore defects in an ion-implanted layer as a post-treatment. This research proposes an X-ray irradiation method to restore defects, as well as thermal annealing. The advantages of this method were that low-melting temperature materials could be processed and that fine patterning could be achieved. To validate this method, MgO single crystal (100) was implanted with 3.1MeV Au ions at a dose of 2 x 1016/cm2 and then irradiated with X-rays. The results showed that the X-ray irradiation affected the optical absorption spectrum, the restoration of the defects, and the diffusion of the implanted atoms, which means that the effect of the X-ray irradiation was similar to thermal annealing.

Effects of X-Ray Irradiation on Optical Property and Defect Relaxation in MeV Ion-Implanted MgO. H.Ogiso, S.Nakano: Surface and Coatings Technology, 2005, 196[1-3], 15-8