The areal density of extended defects in P-implanted and annealed material was observed to increase with the ion dose, raised to the 8th power. A simple model which was based upon Poisson statistics, as applied to point defects created during ion implantation, showed that such a dependence corresponded to an enhanced stability of interstitial clusters which consisted of at least 8 interstitial atoms. It also implied a so-called interstitial clustering radius of 0.8nm. The direct observation of n = 8 confirmed a curious behavior which had been observed earlier in the transient-enhanced diffusion of B, and provided a quantitative explanation for the threshold dose for the formation of extended defects in ion-implanted Si.

Direct Evidence for 8-Interstitial Controlled Nucleation of Extended Defects in c-Si. F.Schiettekatte, S.Roorda, R.Poirier, M.O.Fortin, S.Chazal, R.Heliou: Applied Physics Letters, 2000, 77[26], 4322-4