Thermal evolution of defects produced by implantation of H, D and He in Silicon

Despite decades of study, voids in silicon produced by implantation of H or He followed by annealing continue to be a topic of interest. There are two key applications: gettering of heavy metal impurities, and "ion cutting" used in silicon-on-insulator fabrication. Positron annihilation is one of the few techniques that can probe the vacancies and vacancy clusters that are the precursors to void formation. Data from recent studies will be discussed, including (I) isotopic substitution, in which comparisons of H vs. D implantation permit examination of the impact of primary point defects vs. chemical effects. Remarkable differences exist between H and D in blistering of silicon - ion doses 2-3 times higher are required for blistering with D than with H, despite a higher rate of primary defect production for D; (II) the effect of annealing temperature ramp-rate, in which we show that ramp-rate has a significant impact on residual defects, despite which it is so disregarded as to often be omitted from published reports; and (III) comparisons with electron microscopy which suggest that positron annihilation can be insensitive to large voids. In these studies, positron annihilation augments data from techniques including ion channelling, Raman scattering and electron microscopy; the suite of techniques allows elucidation of the interplay between implanted impurities and the vacancies and interstitials created by implantation.