High-energy heavy ion irradiation-induced structural modifications: a potential physical understanding of latent defects

From annealing experiments performed on both irradiated Si[O.sub.2]--Si structures and MOS devices, swift heavy ions-induced morphological oxide defects are proposed to possibly act as latent defects. Index Terms--Heavy ion, isochronal annealing, latent defects, MOS devices, reliability, Si[O.sub.2]2, structural modifications.