Intrinsic and extrinsic diffusion of phosphorus, arsenic, and antimony in germanium

Abstract

Diffusion experiments of phosphorus (P), arsenic (As), and antimony (Sb) in high purity germanium (Ge) were performed at temperatures between 600 and 920 °C. Secondary ion mass spectrometry and spreading resistance profiling were applied to determine the concentration profiles of the chemically and electrically active dopants. Intrinsic and extrinsic doping conditions result in a complementary error function and box-shaped diffusion profiles, respectively. These profiles demonstrate enhanced dopant diffusion under extrinsic doping. Accurate modeling of dopant diffusion is achieved on the basis of the vacancy mechanism taking into account singly negatively charged dopant-vacancy pairs and doubly negatively charged vacancies. The activation enthalpy and pre-exponential factor for dopant diffusion under intrinsic condition were determined to 2.85 eV and 9.1 cm2 s−1 for P, 2.71 eV and 32 cm2 s−1 for As, and 2.55 eV and 16.7 cm2 s−1 for Sb. With increasing atomic size of the dopants the activation enthalpy decreases. This is attributed to differences in the binding energy of the dopant-vacancy pairs.