A new annealing mechanism was demonstrated which did not involve the direct application of heat, as in conventional or pulsed laser annealing. It was shown that a high-power laser pulse, which was focused onto a small surface spot on a neutron transmutation-doped slab, tended to anneal regions which were far outside of the illuminated spot and to which no heat was directly applied. The electrical activation of donors throughout the slab was uniform, and was comparable to that of thermally annealed control samples. It was suggested that the annealing was caused by mechanical energy which was introduced by the laser pulse.

J.Grun, C.K.Manka, C.A.Hoffman, J.R.Meyer, O.J.Glembocki, R.Kaplan, S.B.Qadri, E.F.Skelton, D.Donnelly, B.Covington: Physical Review Letters, 1997, 78[8], 1584-7