Patent ID: 8304033

Claim:
A method of irradiating a substrate with a gas cluster ion beam (GCIB), comprising: providing a GCIB system comprising: a gas skimmer, a set of at least two nozzles for forming and emitting gas clusters beams, the set of at least two nozzles arranged in mutual close proximity to at least partially coalesce the gas cluster beams emitted from the set of at least two nozzles into a single gas cluster beam, a first gas supply in fluid communication with at least a first subset of nozzles, the first subset of nozzles comprising at least one nozzle from the set of at least two nozzles, and a second gas supply in fluid communication with a second subset of nozzles, the second subset of nozzles being different than the first subset of nozzles and comprising at least one nozzle from the set of at least two nozzles; loading a substrate to be irradiated with a GCIB; flowing a first gas mixture from the first gas supply through at least the first subset of nozzles and flowing a second gas mixture from the second gas supply through at least the second subset of nozzles to form the single gas cluster beam, wherein the first gas mixture and second gas mixture are different; directing the single gas cluster beam through the gas skimmer and then ionizing the single gas cluster beam to form a GCIB; accelerating the GCIB; and irradiating at least one region of the substrate with the GCIB to dope, grow, deposit, or modify a layer thereupon.