The effect of vacancies, generated by laser pre-irradiation, upon dopant diffusion and activation in pre-amorphized Si substrates was studied. Laser-induced melting in Si was used to generate excess vacancies near to the maximum melt depth, before Si substrate amorphization and subsequent B implantation. It was demonstrated that, by matching the pre-irradiated laser melt depth with the implant amorphized depth, it could effectively reduce the Si self-interstitials released from the end-of-range defect band. The results revealed marked suppression of B transient enhanced diffusion and significant removal of end-of-range defects. This was attributed to the recombination of laser-generated excess vacancies with pre-amorphizing induced free Si interstitials in the end-of-range region.

Vacancy Engineering by Optimized Laser Irradiation in Boron-Implanted, Preamorphized Silicon Substrate. D.X.M.Tan, K.L.Pey, K.K.Ong, B.Colombeau, C.M.Ng, S.H.Yeong, A.T.S.Wee, C.J.Liu, X.C.Wang: Applied Physics Letters, 2008, 92[20], 203107