Boron and antimony codiffusion in silicon

Abstract

The codiffusion of B and Sb implanted in Si with a dose of 2 × 1016 cm−2, corresponding to concentration far above the solid solubility, is investigated at 900 and 1000 °C on the basis of SIMS and carrier profile measurements and TEM observations. The comparison of the codiffusion data with the corresponding ones obtained by the diffusion of each element alone revealed several anomalous effects due to dopant interaction. In particular, our experimental results support the hypothesis of the formation of mobile donor-acceptor pairs and of the increase of the Sb solubility in the region where a high concentration of acceptors is present. On the basis of this feature, a diffusion model that takes pairing and precipitation into account is presented. A simulation program including this model allows us to foresee most of the anomalous phenomena occurring in the high concentration codiffusion experiments and shows in general a satisfactory agreement with experimental profiles.