Semiconductor materials processing by ion beam and sub-second annealing
Shengqiang Zhou
Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf, Institute of Ion Beam Physics and Materials Research, Dresden, 01328, Germany
Abstract
A various building block molecules for the synthesis of a variety of perylene monoimides, naphthalimides and phthalimides will be presented. Some modifications of these starting molecules based on classical nucleophilic aromatic substitution and/or metal-catalyzed coupling reactions, as well as their application or promising application in various fields of organic electronics. Proposal of new naphthalene and atracene based spacers as a potential new fluorophore for OLED application.
Ion beams are an indispensable tool in semiconductor technology. On one hand, implanted ions—often substituting host atoms—can introduce free charge carriers. This enables doping of semiconductors and their nanostructures well beyond the solubility limit. Heavily doped semiconductors such as GaAs, Ge, and Si are particularly attractive for near- and mid-infrared plasmonics, where the plasma frequency is governed by the carrier concentration. On the other hand, energetic ions interact with materials through ionization and nuclear collisions, leading to the formation of electronic defects and atomic displacements. The concentration and distribution of these defects can be precisely controlled by adjusting the ion fluence and energy. As such, ion beams offer a powerful method for defect engineering. Following ion implantation, thermal annealing is often necessary to repair induced crystal damage and to activate the dopants. We focus on annealing by intense light pulse including nanosecond laser and millisecond flash lamp, which deliver energy confined to the sample surface, rendering a fast heating (melting) and cooling [1, 2]. As a national lab in Germany, our center is running an Ion Beam Center for materials research [1]. It is open free to the international community for fundamental research based on a proposal system. I will present a range of research examples demonstrating the use of ion beams and sub-second annealing to modify semiconductor materials. These include pushing the doping limits in semiconductors well above the solubility limits [5-6], functionalizing 2D materials [7] and creating color centers for quantum technologies [8].
[1] S. Zhou, Dilute ferromagnetic semiconductors prepared by the combination of ion implantation with pulse laser melting, J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys. 48, 263001 (2015)
[2] L. Rebohle, S. Prucnal, Y. Berencén, V. Begeza, S. Zhou, A snapshot review on flash lamp annealing of semiconductor materials, MRS Advances 7, 1301–1309 (2022)
[3] https://www.hzdr.de/db/Cms?pNid=1984
[4] M. Wang et al, Breaking the doping limit in silicon by deep impurities, Phys. Rev. Appl. 11, 054039 (2019)
[5] S. Prucnal, et al., Dissolution of donor-vacancy clusters in heavily doped n-type germanium, New J. Phys. 22, 123036 (2020)
[6] Shaikh, M. S., et. al. A high-performance all-silicon photodetector enabling telecom-wavelength detection at room temperature, Nature Photonics, submitted (2025). https://www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-5623025/v1
[7] F. Long et al., Ferromagnetic interlayer coupling in CrSBr crystals irradiated by ions, Nano Lett. 23, 8468–8473 (2023)
[8] Wen, S., et al, Optical spin readout of a silicon color center in the telecom L-band, submitted (2025). https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2502.07632
Speaker's Introduction
Shengqiang Zhou is the department leader of “Semiconductor Materials” at Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf, Germany. He received a Bachelor degree in Physics in 1999 and Master degree in Nuclear and Particle physics in 2002, both from Peking University in China. He obtained his PhD in Physics in 2008 from the Technical University of Dresden. From 2008 to 2010 he was a postdoc at the Research-Center Dresden-Rossendorf focusing on the ion implantation into Ge. In 2010 he returned to Peking University as a research professor. From 2011 to 2016, he was leading a Helmholtz Young Investigator Group at Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf. Since 2018, he became the department leader of “Semiconductor Materials” at Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf. He is working on semiconductors (mainly GaAs, Si, Ge and SiC) processed by ion implantation and by milli-second flash lamp or nano-second pulsed laser. Dr. Zhou won the IBMM Young Scientist Awards in 2012.
