Creation and annealing kinetics of magnetic oxygen vacancy centers in SiO2

Dose and energy dependence of the E′1 defect density/cm2 created in SiO2 by implantation of Ar ions has been determined by electron paramagnetic resonance. A dose dependent region followed by a saturated, dose independent region is found for all energies studied (50–150 keV). In the low dose limit for 100-keV Ar ions we estimate E1 creation to be 35/implant ion. The defect density/cm2 is found to be a linear function of the longitudinal atomic collisional damage distribution consistent with a picture of overlapping lateral damage distributions. A simple model for defect creation and annihilation gives a good quantitative explanation of the observed energy and dose dependence of the defect density. Isothermal annealing studies have been performed and the results do not follow those expected for a simple exponentially activated process. A model assuming correlated defect/interstitial recovery gives a better description of the experimental results and suggests an activation energy for recovery of approximately 0.85 eV.