Published online by Cambridge University Press: 16 February 2011
Solid phase epitaxial regrowth of spatially isolated amorphous regions in Si, Ge and GaP has been stimulated by using an electron beam with energies in the range of 50 to 300 keV. In all materials, the rate at which the amorphous zones disappear decreases as the energy of the electron beam increases from 50 keV reaching a minimum below the threshold displacement voltage before it again increases with increasing electron energy. The experimental results are interpreted in terms of creation and motion of defects (dangling bonds, charged defects) along the amorphouscrystalline interface.