Athermal Annealing of Ion-Implanted Silicon

该建议将继续研究非热退火工艺。该过程涉及将高能量激光脉冲聚焦到样品表面上的一个小点（约2 mm）。 已经发现，这样的激光脉冲将退火约1cm 2的区域中的离子注入硅。已经表明，退火在不引入热量的情况下发生，因此不同于常规的热处理。该工艺已证明在已离子注入硼、磷和砷的硅上具有100%的再现性。该过程的有效性已被证明在注入能量低至1keV的硼。目前的项目将研究增加退火面积的方法，并将该工艺应用于不同的材料。增加面积将通过尝试不同的激光聚焦方案来实现。这些涉及使用柱面透镜代替球面透镜，改变激光光斑大小和入射角，以及使用其他方法在材料中发射冲击波。待研究的不同材料系统包括图案化的硅晶片、简单的电气结构，例如二极管、GaAs、GaN和高k电介质材料。处理后，将使用红外吸收光谱、二次离子质谱、扩展电阻分布、透射电子显微镜和薄层电阻率测量来确定该过程的有效性。项目的完成增加了材料加工的知识，并可能为半导体行业提供有价值的加工步骤。该项目还将服务于教育目的，雇用研究生和本科生，然后他们可以从事科学和工程职业。

This proposal will continue the investigation of a non-thermal annealing process. The process involves focusing a high energy laser pulse to a small (~2 mm) spot on the surface of a sample. It has been found that such a laser pulse will anneal areas of approximately 1cm 2 in ion-implanted silicon. It has been shown that the annealing occurs without the introduction of heat, and is therefore different that conventional thermal processes. The process has demonstrated 100% reproducibility on silicon that has been ion-implanted with boron, phosphorus, and arsenic. The effectiveness of the process has been demonstrated at implant energies as low as 1keV for boron. The current project would investigate methods for increasing the annealed area, and apply the process to different materials. Increasing the area will be accomplished by trying different laser focusing schemes. These involve using cylindrical lenses instead of spherical lenses, varying the laser spot size, and angle of incidence, and using other methods of launching shock waves in the material. Different material systems to be investigated include patterned silicon wafers, simple electrical structures, such as diodes, GaAs, GaN, and high-k dielectric materials. After processing, the effectiveness of the process will be determined using infrared absorption spectroscopy, secondary ion mass spectrometry, spreading resistance profiling, transmission electron microscopy, and sheet resistivity measurements. Completion of the projectwill increase knowledge of materials processing, and may provide a valuable processing step for the semiconductor industry. The project will also serve an educational purpose, employing both graduate and undergraduate students, who can then pursue careers in science and engineering.