Modeling arsenic deactivation through arsenic-vacancy clusters using an atomistic kinetic Monte Carlo approach

Abstract

A comprehensive atomistic model for arsenic in silicon which includes charge effects and is consistent with first-principles calculations for arsenic-vacancy cluster energies has been developed. Emphasis has been put in reproducing the electrical deactivation and the annealed profiles in preamorphized silicon. The simulations performed with an atomistic kinetic Monte Carlo simulator suggest a predominant role of the mobile interstitial arsenic in deactivation experiments and provide a good understanding of the arsenic behavior in preamorphized silicon during annealing.