Nanocalorimetry revealed that the annealing kinetics of ion-implanted defects in polycrystalline Si was independent of ion fluence and implantation energy. Ion implantation of 30keV Si–, 15keV Si–, and 15keV C– was performed at fluences ranging from 6 x 1011 to 1015/cm2, followed by scans between 30 and 450C. The rate of heat release had the same shape for all fluences, featuring no peaks but rather a smooth, continuously increasing signal. This suggested that the heat release was dominated by the annealing of highly disordered zones generated by each implantation cascade. Such annealing depends primarily on the details of the damage zone–crystal interface kinetics, and not on the point defect concentration.

Concentration and Ion-Energy-Independent Annealing Kinetics during Ion-Implanted-Defect Annealing. R.Karmouch, J.F.Mercure, Y.Anahory, F.Schiettekatte: Applied Physics Letters, 2005, 86[3], 031912 (3pp)