The formation and annealing kinetics of self-interstitial clusters in ion-implanted material were investigated. Deep level transient spectroscopy and photoluminescence measurements were made of p-type Czochralski samples which had been implanted with 40keV to 1.2MeV Si ions. This revealed that interstitial clusters formed at fluences above 1012/cm2 and annealing temperatures higher than 550C. An analysis of the annealing kinetics at 550 to 700C revealed that these clusters dissociated with an energy that depended upon the implantation dose. The characteristic dissociation energy was about 2.3eV for a dose of 1012/cm2, and this value increased up to the typical {311} extended defect dissociation energy of about 3.8eV upon increasing the fluence. The transition from interstitial clusters to {311} defects was monitored by using photoluminescence and deep level transient spectroscopy, together with transmission electron microscopy. A photoluminescence line at 1375nm was associated with {311} extended defects.

Cluster Formation and Growth in Si Ion Implanted c-Si S.Libertino, S.Coffa, C.Spinella, J.L.Benton, D.Arcifa: Materials Science and Engineering B, 2000, 71[1-3], 137-42