The diffusion and interaction of impurity atoms in semiconductors play an important role and should be taken into account in modelling of the technological processes for semiconductor device fabrication. Being mobile, impurity atoms, vacancies and interstitials can recombine and/or precipitate in the form of stable complexes which leads to the modification of target material properties. The researchers from CEMES (CNRS), INAC and LETI (CEA) have proposed an analytic model that predicts the concentrations of such complexes as a function of point defect concentrations and of temperature. This model describes the aggregation of point defects and impurities using the probabilities for point defects to encounter and the probabilities for the formation of specific complexes. The latter depend on the complex formation energies that were calculated using the density functional theory. This approach is general and can be used whatever impurities or crystal are considered.
The researchers applied and validated this model being interested in the formation of different complexes after H+ implantation in silicon at room temperature. The macroscopic strain that can be measured in the implanted crystal was linked to the individual deformation fields generated by the different complexes. The model was validated and complex concentrations were derived from the comparison with the experimental results obtained by X-ray diffraction. Such model calibration allowed determining the diffusion coefficients of silicon vacancies and interstitials at room temperature, the time required for the formation of all the complexes, the concentrations of complexes as a function of H concentration and the specific role of some complexes in generating strain. The model can be applied for simulating then optimizing the Smart Cut® technology used for creating innovative substrates for microelectronics like SOI and its derivatives. These results were published in Acta Materialia.
- (a) Motion of two A and B defects with average velocities VA and VB in the laboratory coordinate system (Oxyz) and in the moving coordinate system with its origin at the center of the A defect. (b) Average concentrations of different complexes as a function of the concentration of implanted hydrogen
- © CEMES-CNRS
Contact
Dr Nikolay Cherkashin : nikolay.cherkashin at cemes.fr
Reference
N. Cherkashin, F.-X. Darras, P. Pochet, S. Reboh, N. Ratel-Ramond, A. Claverie, “Modelling of point defect complex formation and its application to H+ ion implanted silicon”, Acta Materialia 99 (2015) 187–195.
DOI: 10.1016/j.actamat.2015.07.078