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Envisioning wide future relevance, work is reviewed here on the pure dopant deposition of boron (PureB), gallium (PureGa) and the combination of the two (PureGaB), as used in the fabrication of nanometer shallow p+n Si and/or Ge diodes. Focus is placed on the special properties that have put these diodes in a class apart: their ideal electrical behavior together with their electrical, optical and chemical robustness have lead to cutting-edge application as photodiodes for detecting low-penetration-depth beams, as for example in EUV lithography and low-energy electron SEM imaging. Of key importance is the effectively high Gummel number of the p+-region that provides low saturation currents despite the shallowness of the junctions. Based on experimental evidence it is proposed here that this is related to the formation of a practically complete surface coverage of acceptor states as an interface property of PureB on Si and PureGa on both Si and Ge.

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The effect of external mechanical stress on the crystallization of amorphous silicon deposited on thin, flexible glass substrates has been studied. A thin, 5–10 Å, layer of nickel deposited on the surface of the amorphous silicon layer acted as the seed of crystallization and the crystallization was observed to initiate at the top surface and proceed down towards the glass substrate. Application of a tensile stress during the annealing stage led to a uniform, partial crystallization of the amorphous silicon for annealing temperatures as low as 310 °C. In contrast, the application of compressive stress led to buckling of the silicon films during annealing under mechanical stress and crystallization was nonuniform over the surface of the sample. The crystalline quality of the films was investigated using scanning electron microscopy, x-ray diffraction, and transmission electron microscopy analyses. In addition, lateral polycrystalline growth of the silicon was observed for the case in which the nickel seed layer was less than 5 Å thick.