Quantitative photothermal characterization of ion-implanted layers in Si

Abstract

Quantitative analysis of ion-implanted layers in Si using the damage-based theoretical modeling and experimental results obtained with the photomodulated reflectance (PMR) technique are described. Our theoretical approach combines the conventional quantum mechanics based calculations of the ion-induced damage depth profiles in semiconductors with the corresponding scaling of the thermal and carrier plasma parameters followed by the calculation of the photothermal response from a multilayered sample. The theoretical limit of the photothermal signal sensitivity to the implantation dose in the absence of optical and carrier plasma-wave interference effects is estimated. Simulations of the photothermal amplitude and phase dose dependencies allow us to follow the dynamics of the thermal- and carrier plasma waves in an ion-implanted semiconductor. The validity of the proposed damage-based modeling approach to the problem of quantitative analysis of surface-modified semiconductors is analyzed. It is shown that the results of the photothermal damage-based modeling are in a very good agreement with experimentally observed PMR signal implantation dose behavior for B+-implanted Si across the entire range of practically important implantation doses: 109–1015 cm−2.