On the kinetics of solid phase regrowth and dopant activation during rapid thermal annealing of implantation amorphized silicon

Abstract

We have studied the solid phase epitaxial regrowth (SPER) of implantation [31P+,11B+(73Ge+ preamorphized)] amorphized silicon in the temperature range 500–600 °C induced by rapid thermal annealing (RTA), using Rutherford backscattering (RBS) and channeling measurements. Our results show rate enhancements (≂3.5–6.5) of the velocities of regrowth in all cases studied with respect to values reported in the literature for furnace-induced epitaxy. The measured SPER activation energies (2.7 and 2.6 eV for 31P+ and 11B+ implantations, respectively) while being comparable to literature reported values, were nevertheless higher than the energy required for the activation of these dopants, ≂1.55–2.45 eV. Also, the ratio VB/VP (velocity of regrowth in the presence of boron with respect to phosphorus) gives a value of approximately 3 in both RTA and furnace-induced kinetics. These results are explained by a model which takes into account the role of electrically active interfacial defect sites during SPER.