Investigation of inhomogeneous structures of near-surface-layers in ion-implanted silicon

Abstract

The ion implantation as a subject of investigations attracts increasing interest because of its technological applications. For example, the ion implantation and the adequate thermal treatment are the basic processes for fabrication of a new so-called delta-BSF solar cell. In this silicon solar cell, the continuous sub-structure of modified material (planar amorphous-like layer of nanometric thickness with very thin transition zones) is inserted into the single-crystal emitter. From earlier high resolution electron microscopy studies, it is evident that these two Si phases coexist in the form of well-defined layers separated by sharp heterointerfaces [Z.T. Kuznicki, J. Thibault, F. Chautain-Mathys, S. De Unamuno, Towards ion beam processed single-crystal Si solar cells with a very high efficiency, E-MRS Spring Meeting, Strasbourg, France, First Polish–Ukrainian Symposium, New Photovoltaic Materials for Solar Cells, October 21–22, Kraków, Poland, 1996.]. The aim of this paper is the further structural characterisation of silicon single crystal with buried `amorphous' layer. The non-destructive X-ray diffraction methods as well as the transmission electron microscopy were used to investigate the quality of the a-Si/c-Si heterointerfaces, structural homogeneity of the layers and distribution of the stress field. The measurements were carried out on an initial, as-implanted and annealed material. The 〈100〉-oriented Si single crystals were implanted with 180 keV energy P ions at room temperature.