A nitrogen-hyperdoped silicon material formed by femtosecond laser irradiation

Abstract

A supersaturation of nitrogen atoms is found in the surface layer of microstructured silicon after femtosecond (fs) laser irradiation in NF3. The average nitrogen concentration in the uppermost 50 nm is about 0.5 ± 0.2 at. %, several orders of magnitude higher than the solid solubility of nitrogen atoms in silicon. The nitrogen-hyperdoped silicon shows high crystallinity in the doped layer, which is due to the repairing effect of nitrogen on defects in silicon lattices. Nitrogen atoms and vacancies can be combined into thermal stable complexes after fs laser irradiation, which makes the nitrogen-hyperdoped silicon exhibit good thermal stability of optical properties.