Neutron-enhanced annealing of radiation damage formed by self-ion implantation in silicon

The annealing effect of neutron irradiation has been observed for radiation damage in self-ion implanted silicon. Si samples implanted with (0.5–2)×1015Si∕cm2 were neutron irradiated at 400°C with the total number of displacements of 8.8×10−3dpa. A heavily disordered (not amorphized) sample clearly showed damage annealing enhanced by the neutron irradiation. The annealing efficiency (the ratio of annealed defects to atomic displacements) was calculated to be 1.3 defects/displacement. This annealing efficiency was compared with the results of previous ion beam annealing studies.