Role of self- and boron-interstitial clusters in transient enhanced diffusion in silicon

We investigate the nucleation and evolution of boron-interstitial clusters (BIC), driven by high interstitial supersaturations, S(t), during Si implan t damage annealing. The BICs are "fabricated" in a narrow band by overlappi ng the Si implant damage tail with a lightly doped B buried layer. The BIC band is found to be a net sink for interstitials at supersaturations S(t)> 10(4). Our results suggest that silicon self-interstitial defects are the p rimary source of interstitials driving transient enhanced diffusion, and th at BICs act as a secondary "buffer" for the interstitial supersaturation. ( C) 2000 American Institute of Physics. [S0003-6951(00)03207-1].