In view of theoretical calculations which had predicted the existence of mobile Si di-interstitials (I2), an analysis was made of the implications using a self-consistent model framework and atomistic Monte Carlo methods. Its role in surface recombination and self-interstitial clustering was investigated; including B transient enhanced diffusion under conditions where no B clustering occurred. It was concluded that, under such conditions, the mobile I2 did not play a critical role and that the single self-interstitial could be made to account for the missing mobile I2. The main need to introduce mobile I2 arose from a bottleneck of 2 consecutive relatively unstable self-interstitial cluster sizes. It was demonstrated that the various surface recombination lengths, measured under oxidation/implantation conditions, could not be attributed to differing recombination lengths for a single interstitial and a di-interstitial.

Mobile Silicon Di-Interstitial - Surface, Self-Interstitial Clustering and Transient Enhanced Diffusion Phenomena. I.Martin-Bragado, M.Jaraiz, P.Castrillo, R.Pinacho, J.Barbolla, M.M.De Souza: Physical Review B, 2003, 68[19], 195204 (5pp)