A technique was described for profiling the clustered-vacancy region which was produced by high-energy ion implantation. This technique exploited the fact that metal impurities, such as Au, were trapped in the region of excess vacancies that were produced by MeV self-implantation. Here, the clustered-vacancy regions which were produced by 1, 2 or 8MeV Si implantation were labelled with Au that was diffused-in from the front surface at 750C. The trapped Au was profiled by using Rutherford back-scattering spectrometry. The dynamics of the clustered-vacancy region were monitored during isochronal annealing at 750 to 1000C, or during isothermal annealing at 950C, for 10 to 600s. Cross-sectional transmission electron microscopic analysis revealed that, after drive-in annealing, the Au in the region of vacancy clusters was in the form of precipitates.

Depth profiling of vacancy clusters in MeV-implanted Si using Au labelling V.C.Venezia, D.J.Eaglesham, T.E.Haynes, A.Agarwal, D.C.Jacobson, H.J.Gossmann, F.H.Baumann: Applied Physics Letters, 1998, 73[20], 2980-2