Investigation of recrystallization and stress relaxation in nanosecond laser annealed Si1−xGex/Si epilayers

Dagault, L.; Kerdilès, S.; Alba, Pablo Acosta; Hartmann, Jean‐Michel; Barnes, Jean‐Paul; Gergaud, P.; Scheid, E.; Cristiano, Fuccio

doi:10.1016/j.apsusc.2020.146752

Cited by 28 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 46 publications

(54 reference statements)

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“…In addition, the primary melt starts randomly at the silicon surface (nucleation) as in classical phase transitions [30,31]. For a laser pulse duration of 145 ns, it has been shown that melt droplets as thick as ~15 nm can be formed at the onset of surface melt while adjacent areas can be melted down to a lower depth or even remain in the solid phase [32]. In our case, due to the difference in melting temperature between a-Si and c-Si [27], the maximum thickness of the melted droplets in the surface melt regime might well correspond to the thickness of the entire a-Si layer.…”

Section: Fig 2 (A) Hrem Images Of the As-implanted Sample; (B) Trr Si...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Study of recrystallization and activation processes in thin and highly doped silicon-on-insulator layers by nanosecond laser thermal annealing

Chery¹,

Zhang²,

Monflier³

et al. 2022

Journal of Applied Physics

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In this work, a thorough study of the phosphorus (P) heavy doping of thin Silicon-On-Insulator (SOI) layers by UV nanosecond Laser Thermal Annealing (LTA) is presented. The melting regimes and the regrowth processes as well as the redistribution and activation of P in the top-Si amorphized layer were studied as a function of the implant dose and laser annealing conditions. The results highlight the crucial role of the thin crystalline silicon layer preserved after amorphization of the top-Si layer, which provides nucleation seeds for the liquid phase recrystallization. The impact of the implant dose on the recrystallization process is investigated in detail, in terms of melt energy thresholds, crystallographic nature of the resolidified layer, defect formation, surface roughness and hillocks formation at the silicon surface. For all the implanted doses, optimized laser annealing conditions were identified, corresponding to the laser energies just preceding the onset of the full melt. Such optimized layers exhibit perfect crystallinity, negligible P out-diffusion, an almost perfectly flat P depth profile located below the segregation-induced surface pile-up peak and dopant active concentrations well above 1×10 21 cm -3 , close to the highest reported values reported for phosphorus in bulk Si substrates.

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Section: Fig 2 (A) Hrem Images Of the As-implanted Sample; (B) Trr Si...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Study of recrystallization and activation processes in thin and highly doped silicon-on-insulator layers by nanosecond laser thermal annealing

Chery¹,

Zhang²,

Monflier³

et al. 2022

Journal of Applied Physics

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“…Moreover, stacking faults starting from the initial amorphous/crystalline (a/c) interface can be observed even at such a full melt condition [43]. They might come either from possible nonuniformity of the as-implanted a/c interface or from nonuniform l/s interface during UV-LA [55,56].…”

Section: Dopant Activation By Liquid Phase Epitaxial Regrowth (Lper)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Recent Progresses and Perspectives of UV Laser Annealing Technologies for Advanced CMOS Devices

et al. 2022

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The state-of-the-art CMOS technology has started to adopt three-dimensional (3D) integration approaches, enabling continuous chip density increment and performance improvement, while alleviating difficulties encountered in traditional planar scaling. This new device architecture, in addition to the efforts required for extracting the best material properties, imposes a challenge of reducing the thermal budget of processes to be applied everywhere in CMOS devices, so that conventional processes must be replaced without any compromise to device performance. Ultra-violet laser annealing (UV-LA) is then of prime importance to address such a requirement. First, the strongly limited absorption of UV light into materials allows surface-localized heat source generation. Second, the process timescale typically ranging from nanoseconds (ns) to microseconds (μs) efficiently restricts the heat diffusion in the vertical direction. In a given 3D stack, these specific features allow the actual process temperature to be elevated in the top-tier layer without introducing any drawback in the bottom-tier one. In addition, short-timescale UV-LA may have some advantages in materials engineering, enabling the nonequilibrium control of certain phenomenon such as crystallization, dopant activation, and diffusion. This paper reviews recent progress reported about the application of short-timescale UV-LA to different stages of CMOS integration, highlighting its potential of being a key enabler for next generation 3D-integrated CMOS devices.

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“…Therefore, after pulsed laser annealing, initially uniform SiGe thin films transform into compositionally graded thin films with a high Ge concentration on the top surface. [133][134][135] Moreover, the depth of the melted SiGe film and the Ge concentration at the top surface can be controlled by the laser fluence. This is quite appealing for applications such as contact resistance lowering in doped SiGe films, and the formation of graded SiGe buffer layers for epitaxial growth of group III-V semiconductor-based photonic devices.…”

Section: Laser-driven Phase Segregation In Sige Alloy Thin Films With Uniform Compositionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Laser Thermal Processing of Group IV Semiconductors for Integrated Photonic Systems

Aktaş

Peacock

2021

Advanced Photonics Research

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In the quest to expand the functionality and capacity of group IV semiconductor photonic systems, new materials and production methods are constantly being explored. In particular, flexible fabrication and postprocessing approaches that are compatible with different materials and allow for tuning of the components and systems are of great interest. Within this research area, laser thermal processing has emerged as an indispensable tool that can be applied to enhance and/or modify the material, structural, electrical and optical properties of group IV elemental and compound semiconductors at various stages of the production process. Herein, the recent progress made in the application of laser processing techniques to develop integrated semiconductor systems in both fiber‐ and planar‐based platforms is evaluated. Laser processing has allowed for the production of semiconductor waveguides with high crystallinity in the core and low optical losses, as well as postfabrication trimming of device characteristics and direct writing of tunable strain and composition profiles for bandgap engineering and optical waveguiding. For each platform, the current challenges and opportunities for the future development of laser‐processed integrated semiconductor photonic systems are presented.

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Investigation of recrystallization and stress relaxation in nanosecond laser annealed Si1−xGex/Si epilayers

Cited by 28 publications

References 46 publications

Study of recrystallization and activation processes in thin and highly doped silicon-on-insulator layers by nanosecond laser thermal annealing

Study of recrystallization and activation processes in thin and highly doped silicon-on-insulator layers by nanosecond laser thermal annealing

Recent Progresses and Perspectives of UV Laser Annealing Technologies for Advanced CMOS Devices

Laser Thermal Processing of Group IV Semiconductors for Integrated Photonic Systems

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