Epitaxial regrowth of intrinsic, 31P-doped and compensated (31P+11B-doped) amorphous Si

Abstract

The rate of solid-phase epitaxial regrowth of implantation amorphized 〈100〉 Si was studied in intrinsic, phosphorus-doped and compensated (boron- and phosphorus-doped) materials. The anneals were performed in flowing Ar gas in the temperature range from 477 to 576 °C, and the regrowth was analyzed by 2.2-MeV 4He+ channeling techniques. The intrinsic and compensated samples exhibited nearly equal growth rates with thermal-activation energies of 2.85 eV (intrinsic) and 2.8 eV (compensated). The growth rate in the 31P-doped (constant concentration of 1.7×1020 cm−3) was enhanced by a factor of 6 to 8, while little change in the activation energy was observed.

Defective Solid-Phase Epitaxial Growth of Si

“…The impurity concentration along the portion of the growth interface with [110] normal will then be variable according to the ionimplantation conditions, with peak concentration occurring at the projected range of the ion (Ziegler et al, 2010). This will result in the growth interface with [110] normal at the projected range of the ions moving faster than the surrounding portions during SPEG, as per the reported enhancement to SPEG kinetics in the presence of electrically active impurities Lietoila et al, 1982;Suni et al, 1982;Williams and Elliman, 1983;Williams and Short, 1983). Obviously, this enhancement to the velocity of the growth interface with [110] normal favors impingement with the portion of the growth interface with [001] normal, and thus favors maskedge defect formation.…”

“…The data shown here used material free of impurity atoms to avoid complications, since impurities are known to profoundly alter the SPEG kinetics in wafers with blanket α-Si layers Kennedy et al, 1977;Lietoila et al, 1982;Suni et al, 1982;Williams and Elliman, 1983;Williams and Short, 1983). However, it is important to consider the role of impurities (particularly electrically active ones) on mask-edge defect formation during SPEG, since impurity implantation is a critical part of Si-based device fabrication.…”

“…Extensive prior work established that the velocity of the growth interface is highly sensitive to the annealing temperature (Olson and Roth, 1988;Roth et al, 1990) used to effect SPEG, the crystallographic orientation of the substrate, the presence of impurities Kennedy et al, 1977;Lietoila et al, 1982;Morarka et al, 2010;Suni et al, 1982;Williams and Elliman, 1983;Williams and Short, 1983) within the α-Si layer, and the application of external stress (Aziz et al, 1991;Barvosa-Carter and Aziz, 2001;BarvosaCarter et al, 1998BarvosaCarter et al, , 2004Chaki, 1991Chaki, , 1994Lu et al, 1989;Morarka et al, 2011;Nygren et al, 1985;Phan et al, 2001;Rudawski and Jones, 2009;Rudawski et al, 2007Rudawski et al, , 2008bRudawski et al, ,c,d, 2009aSage et al, 2000;Sklenard et al, 2013). The exact details of the effect each of these considerations has on the macroscopic nature of the SPEG process will not be described in detail here.…”

Ultra-thin polycrystalline Si layers on glass prepared by aluminum-induced layer exchange

“…Our experimentally observed value of jE A;n G j ¼ 0:8 AE 0:4 eV indeed is in good agreement with the difference of %0.7 eV for the two diffusion energies cited above. All of these possible activation energies are significantly smaller than the activation energy of solid phase crystallization of 3-4 eV [13][14][15], thereby quantifying the advantage of the ALILE process over solid phase crystallization. It is also noteworthy that we do not see any systematic trend in these activation energies as a function of the layer thicknesses in the investigated range between 10 and 200 nm.…”

Kinetics of nickel-induced lateral crystallization of amorphous silicon thin-film transistors by rapid thermal and furnace anneals

“…Blum and Feldman 15 annealed a-Si on fused silica in argon and measured a value of 3.1 eV. Lietoila et al 16 investigated in vacuo recrystallization of a-Si near surface region in a crystalline wafer rendered amorphous by a Si implant, and found a value of 2.85 eV. Using similar conditions, Olson, 9 Licoppe, and Nissim, 17 and Csepregi, Mayer, and Sigmon 18 measured 2.76, 2.7, and 2.3 eV, respectively.…”