The clustering of point defects into dislocations, as a result of ion implantation and annealing, was found to be inhibited by the presence of cavities that were produced by He ion implantation and which were located at depths of up to 1. It was shown that annealing at 1200C resulted in the complete absence of extended defects when partial damage was produced by B ion implantation, or continuous amorphous layers were produced by Ge implantation. The suppression of dislocation formation did not depend upon the depth at which cavities were located, upon their density or upon the purity of the wafer. The results were explained in terms of the efficiency of voids in capturing interstitial Si atoms.

V.Raineri, S.U.Campisano: Applied Physics Letters, 1996, 69[12], 1783-5