High-energy protons are generated by focusing an ultrashort pulsed high intensity laser at the Advanced Photon Research Center, JAERI-Kansai onto thin (thickness <10 μm) Tantalum targets. The laser intensities are about 4 × 1018 W/cm2. The prepulse level of the laser pulse is measured with combination of a PIN photo diode and a cross correlator and is less than 10−6. A quarter-wave plate is installed into the laser beam line to create circularly polarized pulses. Collimated high energy protons are observed with CH coated Tantalum targets irradiated with the circularly polarized laser pulses. The beam divergence of the generated proton beam is measured with a CR-39 track detector and is about 6 mrad.

The UV/mm-wave technique composed of ultraviolet photoexcitation and millimeter wave probe was examined with photoconductivity amplitude (PCA) to characterize the slight subsurface damage induced by implanting H2 + ion into the subsurface at sub micron depth of Si wafers. The identical samples were also characterized using pulse photoconductivity amplitude (PPCA) obtained by another technique which is specified by blue laser photoexcitation and microwave probe. PCA decreased with increase of ion dose, which coincided well with the result in PPCA. PPCA decreased with increase of implantation energy as 90 to 120 keV, but PCA increased at 120keV. Both PCA and PPCA well reflected the damage at sub micron depth. PCA reflected damage in shallower depth compared to PPCA.

We have characterized subsurface damage profiles of hydrogen-ion implanted silicon wafers by using a non-contact UV/Millimeter-Wave Technique and Light Scattering Topography (LST). A subsurface damage profile that was less than one micrometer was controlled by chemical mechanical polishing after hydrogen-ion implantation. On the area with the subsurface damage, the Photoconductivity Amplitude (PCA) signals measured by the UV/Millimeter-Wave Technique drastically weakened and the haze values measured by LST increased. A clear correlation has been found between the peak depth of the subsurface damage and the haze value. The spectral analyses of the surface images obtained by Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) were carried out in order to separate the influences of surface micro roughness and subsurface damage on the haze value. The contribution of subsurface damage to the haze value can be formulated as the convolution of the damage profile and the transparency function of the incident laser in silicon crystal.