Anomalous ion damage behavior in ZnSe

The structural properties of ZnSe damaged by 180 keV Zn ions are studied for a wide range of ion dose (10¹³-10¹⁶/cm²) using ion channeling techniques. We found that ZnSe cannot be rendered amorphous by implantation at either room temperature (RT) or liquid nitrogen temperature (LNT) in the range of doses investigated. For lower ion doses (10¹³- 10¹⁴/cm²), ZnSe samples implanted at LNT result in less damage than those implanted at RT by as much as an order of magnitude. Moreover, no simple point defect or amorphous clusters are found in the implanted ZnSe. For high implant doses (> 10¹⁴/cm²), the samples are still monocrystalline but become highly defective with extended defects. Our results also suggests that point defects in the ZnSe created during implantation may be mobile at or below RT and that they may migrate rapidly under ion irradiation.