Influence of irradiation by Swift Heavy Ions (SHI) on electronic magnetotransport in δ-layer in silicon

In the present paper we report about the influence of Swift Heavy Ions (SHI) irradiation on the electron transport in a silicon structure containing delta-layer heavy-doped with antimony. Temperature and magnetic field dependencies of the sheet resistance R-Sq(T, B) in the temperature range 2 < T < 300 K and magnetic field induction (B) up to 8 T of the structure before and after the 167 MeV Xe+26 ion irradiation with 1 & BULL; 10(8) cm(-2) - 5 & BULL; 10(10) cm(-2) ion fluences (D) were measured. The observed R-Sq(D, T) curves for 6-layer have shown the competition between formation and annealing of defects induced by SHI irradiation due to electron stopping mechanism of ion energy loosing. Besides, at temperatures below 50 K, we observed the transition from exponential dependencies of R-Sq(T) to a semi-logarithmic R-Sq & nbsp;& SIM; -lg(T) ones both before and after the SHI exposure. Such behavior confirms the assumption that the low-temperature carrier transport is carried out mainly by the delta-layer. Moreover, transition from positive (PMR) to negative (NMR) relative magnetoresistance MR(B) was observed when temperature decreasing. The appropriate characteristic times for the carrier scattering process in delta-layer at temperatures below 25 K were estimated from R-Sq(T, B) dependencies using the theory of 2D quantum corrections to Drude conductivity due to interference of electrons moving by self-crossing routes inside of delta-layer. Fitting of R-Sq(T, B) curves in frameworks of this theory indicates prevailing of phase breaking of electrons' wave function due to their scattering on weakly-localized defect centers induced by SHI irradiation.