It was recalled that it had been recently shown that Au labelling could be used to profile vacancy-type defects which were located near to 50% of the projected range in MeV-implanted samples. The ratio of vacancies annihilated, to Au atoms trapped, in this labelling technique was determined here. This involved 2MeV Si+ implantation into Si(100), followed by annealing at 815C to form stable excess vacancy defects. A controlled injection of interstitials into the mid-point of the projected range of the above samples was then carried out using 600keV Si+ ions; followed by annealing in order to dissolve {311} defects. The Au-labelling itself was the final step. It was concluded that the reduction in Au concentration in the near-surface region (0.1 to 1.6μm), with increasing interstitial injection, provided the most direct evidence that Au-labelling detected vacancy-type defects. By correlating the reduction in Au, with known numbers of injected interstitials, it was deduced that there were some 1.2 vacancies per trapped Au atom.

Quantification of Excess Vacancy Defects from High-Energy Ion Implantation in Si by Au Labelling R.Kalyanaraman, T.E.Haynes, V.C.Venezia, D.C.Jacobson, H.J.Gossmann, C.S.Rafferty: Applied Physics Letters, 2000, 76[23], 3379-81