Novel characterization of implant damage in SiO₂ by nuclear-deposited energy

Etching enhancement in through-implanted SiO₂ has been characterized by nuclear-deposited energy independently of implant conditions. An empirical expression has been proposed to describe the etching rate for any implantation. The enhanced etching has been related to the Si-O vibrational frequency shift. Etching enhancement has been found to reflect the structural change in SiO₂, and to be a good measure of degradation. The structural change of SiO₂ stops and the etching rate reaches a maximum for an ion dose corresponding to nuclear-deposited energy larger than 3.4×10²³ eV/cm³. This energy is equal to the total SiO bonding energy (3.8 eV) in a unit volume of SiO₂.