(Invited) The Thermal Budget of Hydrogen-Related Donor Profiles: Diffusion-Limited Activation and Thermal Dissociation

Abstract

The impact of the thermal budget on hydrogen-related donor profiles in high purity silicon implanted with protons in the MeV energy range is investigated. The appearance of donor profiles is limited to the annealing temperature between 350 {degree sign}C and 500 {degree sign}C. The activation of doping profiles is limited by the diffusion of implanted hydrogen from the end-of-range region throughout the radiation-induced damage. This formation process of profiles is described by a diffusion model with an effective activation energy of 1.2 eV. The hydrogen-related donors are radiation-induced defect complexes decorated by hydrogen. The thermal stability of these donors is limited by dissociation. The deactivation of the doping is modeled by two hydrogen-related donor species with effective dissociation energies of 2.5 eV and 3 eV. The described formation and dissociation mechanisms define upper and lower limits of the post-implantation thermal budget, respectively, for sensible use of proton implantation doping in crystalline Silicon.