Abstract
Ion Implantation of ruthenium ions into a silicon substrate followed by a high temperature anneal (known as Ion Beam Synthesis) has been used for the first time to fabricate three wafers, under the following conditions. 1. 5.67 X 1016 Ru+ cm-2, beam heated 2. 4.25 X 1016 Ru+ cm-2, heated to ~ 600°C 3. 1.27 X 1017 Ru+ cm-2, heated to ~ 600°C All wafers contained precipitates of the orthorhombic semiconducting silicide of ruthenium, Ru2Si3. No other phase was identified. The samples exhibited a complicated microstructure, with 16 different orientation variants identified, and a high degree of disorder (~ +11% strain). The first optical measurements ever carried out on this material are reported here. Absorption measurements in transmittance yielded a direct band gap, in the region of ~ 0.9eV, 0.87eV, and 0.92eV for wafers 1, 2, and 3 respectively. No discernible variation of band gap magnitude with measurement temperature was found. Upon sequential annealing, the direct band gap magnitude remained constant up to ~ 650°C after which it shifted to above that of silicon, possibly due to a change in microstructural disorder as the precipitates increase in size. This observation was confirmed by several single step anneals at various temperatures above 650°C. No photoluminescence was observed in any of the samples.