Role of self- and boron-interstitial clusters in transient enhanced diffusion in silicon

Abstract

We investigate the nucleation and evolution of boron-interstitial clusters (BIC), driven by high interstitial supersaturations, S(t), during Si implant damage annealing. The BICs are “fabricated” in a narrow band by overlapping the Si implant damage tail with a lightly doped B buried layer. The BIC band is found to be a net sink for interstitials at supersaturations S(t)>104. Our results suggest that silicon self-interstitial defects are the primary source of interstitials driving transient enhanced diffusion, and that BICs act as a secondary “buffer” for the interstitial supersaturation.