Transient boron diffusion in ion-implanted crystalline and amorphous silicon

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Abstract
Boron diffusion in ion-implanted and annealed single-crystal and amorphized Si is compared to determine the effect of amorphization on the initial transient boron motion reported for single crystal. The boron was implanted at 20 keV and at doses of 1×1015 and 3×1015cm−2. The Si was either preamorphized or postamorphized to a depth of 320 nm by implantation of Si ions at three different energies. In the amorphized samples the entire boron profile was always contained within this distance. The samples were annealed by furnace or rapid thermal annealing to 900–1100 °C with or without a preanneal at 600 °C. The initial rapid diffusion transient in the tail region of the boron profile was observed in all the crystal samples. This transient was totally absent in the amorphized samples. This is manifest by careful comparison of boron concentration profiles determined by secondary ion mass spectrometry of single-crystal and amorphized samples after annealing. For anneals where significant motion occurs, the profiles of the amorphized samples could be fit with a computational model that did not include anomalous transient effects. It is proposed that excess interstitials cause the transient diffusion in the case of the crystalline samples. The source of interstitials is believed to be provided by the thermal dissolution of small clusters that are formed by the implantation process. They exist for only a short time, during which they enhance the boron diffusion. Since there is no enhanced diffusion in the amorphous region that regrows to single crystal, apparently interstitial clusters are neither produced by nor do they survive the regrowth process in that region. In addition, the interstitials generated by the damage beyond the amorphous-crystalline boundary are prevented from entering the regrown region by the dislocation loops formed at that boundary which act as a sink consuming the interstitials diffusing toward the surface.