Hydrogen blister depth in boron and hydrogen coimplanted n-type silicon

We have studied the depths of hydrogen surface blisters in < 100 > n-type s ilicon, which formed after B+H coimplantation and heat treatment. The silic on substrates had three different dopant levels, ranging from 10(14) to 10( 19) cm(-3). The Si substrates were first implanted with B+ ions at 147 keV to a dose of 10(15) cm(-2). Some of the B-implanted samples were left in th eir as-implanted state; others were electrically activated by a rapid therm al anneal. The samples were then implanted with 40 keV H+ to a dose of 5x10 (16) cm(-2). At the chosen implantation energies, the hydrogen- and boron-i mplantation distributions overlap. Following H+ implantation, all the sampl es were vacuum annealed and examined by ion-beam analysis and scanning elec tron microscopy. In all cases, the blister depth was consistently found to be strongly correlated with the H damage profile rather than the H or B con centration profiles. (C) 1999 American Institute of Physics. [S0003-6951(99 )00851-7].