Molecular dynamics simulations of ion implantation for the fabrication of a solid-state quantum computer

Abstract

We have applied the recently developed environment dependent interaction potential (EDIP) for silicon to simulate phosphorus implantation into silicon at keV energies. We have simulated implants along channeling and non-channeling directions to study the formation and annealing of damage and its effect on the position of the implant. The simulations are applied to the problem of creating a regularly spaced lattice of sub-surface P dopants in a silicon crystal for the construction of a solid-state quantum computer, with particular emphasis on minimising the lateral and longitudinal straggle to precisely place implants in the desired position. We also calculate the migration energies of the vacancy and self-interstital in silicon using EDIP, and find them to be in close agreement with values predicted by ab initio methods.