Multiscale Materials Modeling Group
Universidad de Valladolid
Semiconductors are intentionally or unintentionally exposed to radiation of energetic particles. Ion implantation of dopants has been traditionally used for junction formation in integrated circuit processing, and recently also in solar cells fabrication. Semiconductor radiation detectors are designed to be exposed and detect radiation while other devices may be exposed to nuclear or cosmic radiation because of their location even if they are not intended to detect radiation. In any case, as energetic particles enter into a crystalline solid and collides with the lattice atoms, damage is generated.
Our efforts in this field span from the fundamental studies to understand the damage resulting from the interactions between energetic particles and target atoms, to more applied issues related to the modeling of actual irradiation or implant parameters in practical technological problems. By using simulations we have revealed and quantified the singularities of damage generated by simultaneous irradiation with several energetic ions through molecular implants or with plasmas, and the influence of dynamic annealing during irradiation on damage accumulation.