Hydrogen blister depth in boron and hydrogen coimplanted n-type silicon

We have studied the depths of hydrogen surface blisters in 〈100〉 n-type silicon, which formed after $\mathrm{B+H}$ coimplantation and heat treatment. The silicon substrates had three different dopant levels, ranging from ${10}^{14}$ to ${10}^{19} {\mathrm{cm}}^{\mathrm{-3}}.$ The Si substrates were first implanted with ${\mathrm{B}}^{\mathrm{+}}$ ions at 147 keV to a dose of ${10}^{15} {\mathrm{cm}}^{\mathrm{-2}}.$ Some of the B-implanted samples were left in their as-implanted state; others were electrically activated by a rapid thermal anneal. The samples were then implanted with 40 keV ${\mathrm{H}}^{\mathrm{+}}$ to a dose of ${\text{5×10}}^{16} {\mathrm{cm}}^{\mathrm{-2}}.$ At the chosen implantation energies, the hydrogen- and boron-implantation distributions overlap. Following ${\mathrm{H}}^{\mathrm{+}}$ implantation, all the samples were vacuum annealed and examined by ion-beam analysis and scanning electron microscopy. In all cases, the blister depth was consistently found to be strongly correlated with the H damage profile rather than the H or B concentration profiles.