The use of surface sensitive diffuse X-ray scattering under conditions of grazing incidence and exit angles, to investigate the growth and dissolution of near-surface defects after B implantation in Si(001) and annealing, was demonstrated. Wafers of Si were implanted with a B dose of 6 x 1015/cm2 at 32keV and subjected to various annealing treatments. The diffuse intensity close to the (220) surface Bragg peak revealed the nature and kinetic behavior of the implantation-induced defects. Analyzing the q dependence of the diffuse scattering, it was possible to distinguish between point defect clusters and extrinsic stacking faults on {111} planes. Characteristic for stacking faults were diffuse X-ray intensity streaks along <111> directions, which allow for the determination of their growth and dissolution kinetics. For the annealing conditions of the present crystals, it was concluded that the kinetics of growth could be described by an Ostwald ripening model in which smaller faults shrink at the expense of the larger stacking faults. The growth was found to be limited by the self-diffusion of Si interstitials. After longer rapid thermal annealing the stacking faults disappear almost completely without shrinking, most likely by transformation into perfect loops via a dislocation reaction. This model was confirmed by complementary cross-sectional transmission electron microscopy.

X-ray Analysis of Temperature Induced Defect Structures in Boron Implanted Silicon. M.Sztucki, T.H.Metzger, I.Kegel, A.Tilke, J.L.Rouvière, D.Lübbert, J.Arthur, J.R.Patel: Journal of Applied Physics, 2002, 92[7], 3694-703