T. E. Haynes

PHYSICAL MECHANISMS OF TRANSIENT ENHANCED DOPANT DIFFUSION IN ION-IMPLANTED SILICON

Implanted B and P dopants in Si exhibit transient enhanced diffusion (TED) during annealing which arises from the excess interstitials generated by the implant. In order to study the mechanisms of TED, transmission electron microscopy measurements of implantation damage were combined with B diffusion experiments using doping marker structures grown by molecular-beam epitaxy (MBE). Damage from nonamorphizing Si implants at doses ranging from 5×1012 to 1×1014/cm2 evolves into a distribution of {311} interstitial agglomerates during the initial annealing stages at 670–815 °C. The excess interstitial concentration contained in these defects roughly equals the implanted ion dose, an observation that is corroborated by atomistic Monte Carlo simulations of implantation and annealing processes. The injection of interstitials from the damage region involves the dissolution of {311} defects during Ostwald ripening with an activation energy of 3.8±0.2 eV. The excess interstitials drive substitutional B into electric...

Efficient production of silicon-on-insulator films by co-implantation of He+ with H+

We have investigated the process of thin film separation by gas ion implantation and wafer bonding, as well as the more basic phenomenon of blistering, on which the technique is based. We show that when H and He gas implants are combined they produce a synergistic effect which enables thin-film separation at a much lower total implantation dose than that required for either H or He alone. By varying the H and He implantation doses we have been able to isolate the physical and chemical contributions of the gases to the blistering processes. We find that the essential role of H is to interact chemically with the implantation damage and create H-stabilized platelet-like defects, or microvoids. The efficiency of H in this action is linked to its effective lowering of the silicon internal surface energy. The second key component of the process is physical; it consists of diffusion of gas into the microvoids and gas expansion during annealing, which drives growth and the eventual intersection of the microvoids ...

Mechanism of silicon exfoliation induced by hydrogen/helium co-implantation

Infrared spectroscopy and secondary ion mass spectrometry are used to elucidate the mechanism by which co-implantation of He with H facilitates the shearing of crystalline Si. By studying different implant conditions, we can separate the relative contributions of damage, internal pressure generation, and chemical passivation to the enhanced exfoliation process. We find that the He acts physically as a source of internal pressure but also in an indirect chemical sense, leading to the reconversion of molecular H2 to bound Si–H in “VH2-like” defects. We postulate that it is the formation of these hydrogenated defects at the advancing front of the expanding microcavities that enhances the exfoliation process.

Photoinduced phase transition in VO2 nanocrystals: ultrafast control of surface-plasmon resonance

We study the ultrafast insulator-to-metal transition in nanoparticles of VO2, obtained by ion implantation and self-assembly in silica. The nonmagnetic, strongly correlated compound VO2 undergoes a reversible phase transition, which can be photoinduced on an ultrafast time scale. In the nanoparticles, prompt formation of the metallic state results in the appearance of surface-plasmon resonance. We achieve large, ultrafast enhancement of optical absorption in the near-infrared spectral region that encompasses the wavelength range for optical-fiber communications. One can further tailor the response of the nanoparticles by controlling their shape.

Synthesis and characterization of size-controlled vanadium dioxide nanocrystals in a fused silica matrix

Vanadium dioxide single-crystal precipitates with controlled particle sizes were produced in an amorphous, fused SiO2 host by the stoichiometric coimplantation of vanadium and oxygen ions and subsequent thermal processing. The effects of the vanadium dioxide nanocrystal size, nanocrystal morphology, and particle/host interactions on the VO2 semiconductor-to-metal phase transition were characterized. VO2 nanoparticles embedded in amorphous SiO2 exhibit a sharp phase transition with a hysteresis that is up to 50 °C in width—one of the largest values ever reported for this transition. The relative decrease in the optical transmission in the near-infrared region in going from the semiconducting to the metallic phase of VO2 ranges from 20% to 35%. Both the hysteresis width and the transition temperature are correlated with the size of the precipitates. Doping the embedded VO2 particles with ions such as titanium alters the characteristics of the phase transition, pointing the way to control the hysteresis beha...

Study of the effect of ion implantation on the electrical and microstructural properties of tin-doped indium oxide thin films

Ion implantation of H2+ or O+ ions in the range 0–1.7×1015 and 0–1.3×1015/cm2, respectively, was used to investigate the effect of implant‐induced damage on the electrical properties of Sn‐doped In2O3 (ITO) films deposited by electron‐beam evaporation on SiO2‐coated soda‐lime glass substrates. The films were characterized as a function of implant dose using low‐temperature Hall effect, resistivity, optical transmissivity, x‐ray diffraction, and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). A systematic decrease in both carrier density (n) and Hall mobility (μ) was observed with increasing dose of either implant species. The electronic results were analyzed using charged and neutral impurity scattering models which suggest that the observed changes are due to the degradation of electrically active donor centers and the generation of the neutral scattering centers. The microstructure of the implanted films, as revealed by TEM and x‐ray diffraction, is consistent with the presence of significant dynamic recovery d...

Interactions of ion‐implantation‐induced interstitials with boron at high concentrations in silicon

Ion implantation of Si (60 keV, 1×1014/cm2) has been used to introduce excess interstitials into silicon predoped with high background concentrations of B, which were varied between 1×1018 and 1×1019/cm3. Following post‐implantation annealing at 740 °C for 15 min to allow agglomeration of the available interstitials into elongated {311} defects, the density of the agglomerated interstitials was determined by plan‐view transmission electron microscopy observation of the defects. We report a significant reduction in the fraction of excess interstitials trapped in {311} defects as a function of boron concentration, up to nearly complete disappearance of the {311} defects at boron concentrations of 1×1019/cm3. The reduction of the excess interstitial concentration is interpreted in terms of boron‐interstitial clustering, and implications for transient‐enhanced diffusion of B at high concentrations are discussed.

Temperature-controlled surface plasmon resonance in VO (2) nanorods.

The optical properties of VO(2) nanoparticles formed in an amorphous SiO(2) host by stoichiometric ion implantation of vanadium and oxygen and thermal annealing have been determined and correlated with the particle size and morphology. The results show that that the temperature-controlled semiconductor-to-metal phase transition of the VO(2) nanophase precipitates turns on the classical surface plasmon resonance, with specific features that depend on the size and aspect ratio of the VO(2) particles. This effect improves the optical contrast between the metallic and semiconducting states in the near-IR region of the spectrum as a result of dielectric confinement that is due to the SiO(2) host. A fiber-optic application is demonstrated, as is the ability to control the characteristics of the phase transition by using ion implantation to dope the VO(2) nanoparticles with tungsten or titanium ions.

Reduction of transient diffusion from 1–5 keV Si+ ion implantation due to surface annihilation of interstitials

The reduction of transient enhanced diffusion (TED) with reduced implantation energy has been investigated and quantified. A fixed dose of 1×1014 cm−2 Si+ was implanted at energies ranging from 0.5 to 20 keV into boron doping superlattices and enhanced diffusion of the buried boron marker layers was measured for anneals at 810, 950, and 1050 °C. A linearly decreasing dependence of diffusivity enhancement on decreasing Si+ ion range is observed at all temperatures, extrapolating to ∼1 for 0 keV. This is consistent with our expectation that at zero implantation energy there would be no excess interstitials from the implantation and hence no TED. Monte Carlo modeling and continuum simulations are used to fit the experimental data. The results are consistent with a surface recombination length for interstitials of <10 nm. The data presented here demonstrate that in the range of annealing temperatures of interest for p-n junction formation, TED is reduced at smaller ion implantation energies and that this is d...

Enhanced hysteresis in the semiconductor-to-metal phase transition of VO2 precipitates formed in SiO2 by ion implantation

A strongly enhanced hysteresis with a width of >34 °C has been observed in the semiconductor-to-metal phase transition of submicron-scale VO2 precipitates formed in the near-surface region of amorphous SiO2 by the stoichiometric coimplantation of vanadium and oxygen and subsequent thermal processing. This width is approximately an order of magnitude larger than that reported previously for the phase transition of VO2 particles formed in Al2O3 by a similar technique. The phase transition is accompanied by a significant change in infrared transmission. The anomalously wide hysteresis loop observed here for the VO2/SiO2 system can be exploited in optical data storage and switching applications in the infrared region.