TIME EVOLUTION OF DISLOCATION FORMATION IN ION-IMPLANTED SILICON

Annealing of crystal damage from ion implantation may result in disloc ation formation. Here we study the nucleation, growth, and annihilatio n of such dislocations during rapid thermal anneals of Si, Ge, As, and In implanted Si. The dislocation formation process is observed for si ngle or multiple damage profiles, as well as in amorphous-crystal tran sition regions. Dislocations initially nucleate in all these cases, ev en if they eventually annihilate during further annealing. It is also shown that for C implants in Si not only do dislocations not remain af ter annealing, but they do not even nucleate.