Chapter 2 Segregation, Solute Trapping, and Supersaturated Alloys

Abstract

This chapter discusses the studies of dopant incorporation in silicon during the high-speed liquid-phase epitaxial regrowth process induced by pulsed laser annealing. These studies show that substitutional species can be incorporated into the lattice by solute trapping at concentrations that far exceed equilibrium solubility limits. Laser annealing of ion-implanted silicon has provided fundamental information on high-speed nonequilibrium crystal growth processes. This rapid advance has been made possible because the two complementary nonequilibrium-processing techniques—ion implantation and pulsed laser annealing—can be used to carry out experiments under carefully controlled conditions. Questions that need further investigation include the saturation value for distribution coefficients at high growth velocities, further tests of thermodynamic limits to dopant incorporation at higher velocities, orientation effects in solute trapping, incorporation of nonsubstitutional species, and further studies of the transition to the amorphous state.