A new method for the characterization of high energy ion-implanted materials has been developed. The refractive index and thickness of the amorphous layer produced by ion-implantation as well as the recrystallized layer formed by annealing of the ionimplanted samples can be determined by means of this non-destructive optical technique.
For frequencies where the carriers do not respond, the measured reflectance is bilinear transformed, and further digital signal processing yields information about thickness and refractive index of the abovementioned layers. When working at optical frequencies where the carriers can respond to the electromagnetic field the physical position of the peak concentration follows directly from the processed reflectance data. Simulated and experimental data have been analyzed. The position of the boundaries between the amorphous, recrystallized and substrate zones, as well as the position of the carrier concentration peak can be determined for various steps of annealing. The algorithm has the advantage of being simple and time efficient.