Onset of blistering in hydrogen-implanted silicon

The onset of surface blistering in hydrogen-implanted single crystalline silicon was studied. A combination of atomic force microscopy and optical measurements shows that hydrogen-containing platelets grow laterally below silicon surface until they suddenly pop up as surface blisters due to the internal hydrogen pressure after a critical size has been reached. Experimentally and theoretically, the critical size of the onset blisters was found to increase with increasing implantation depth or top layer thickness.