Thin Solid Films, Vol.534, 62-66, 2013
Extended defects and precipitation in heavily B-doped silicon
The boron precipitation phenomenon in highly supersaturated boron-implanted silicon (10 keV B+, 5 x 10(15) ions/cm(2)) has been investigated by means of atom probe tomography, transmission electron microscopy and secondary ion mass spectrometry. We demonstrate that (001) dislocation loops observed by transmission electron microscopy in the region close to the boron projected range and boron precipitates ((001)-platelets) observed by atom probe are the same objects. For sufficiently high thermal budgets (900 degrees C for 5 h), boron precipitates close to the stoichiometric SiB3 composition have been observed, indicating that the precipitation induced by high-dose boron implantation can lead to the formation of a stable phase. (C) 2013 Elsevier B. V. All rights reserved.
Keywords:Microelectronics;Extended defects;Precipitation;Implanted silicon;Boron;Atom probe tomography;Transmission electron microscopy