Dose rate dependence of damage clustering during heavy ion irradiation in Si

Abstract
The influence of dose rate on damage accumulation during heavy ion irradiation in Si was investigated. Combined analysis techniques including Rutherford backscattering/channeling spectrometry (RBS) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) were used to characterize the nature and amount of residual damage. For room temperature irradiations, the amount of residual damage increased with increasing dose rate over the entire range investigated. However, no dependence was observed for cryogenic irradiations. These results are shown to be in good agreement with a model which assumes that damage is nucleated homogeneously.