Effects of boron-interstitial silicon clusters on interstitial supersaturation during postimplantation annealing

Boron marker-layer structures have been used to investigate the effects of B doping on the evolution of the implantation damage and of the associated transient enhanced diffusion. The samples were damaged by Si implants at di fferent doses in the range 2x10(13)-1x10(14) cm(-2) and annealed at 740 deg reesC for times between 2 s and 4 h. The values of interstitial supersatura tion, from the beginning of the annealing up to the complete damage recover y, have been determined for the different Si doses for a given B doping lev el. Damage removal has been followed by double crystal x-ray diffraction. O ur results confirm that the formation of boron-interstitial silicon cluster s traps a relevant fraction of the interstitials produced by the implantati on. This trapping action gives rise to a strong reduction of the interstiti al supersaturation, prevents the interstitial clusters from being transform ed in {113} defects and modifies the time evolution of the transient enhanc ed diffusion. X-ray analyses indicate also that the size of the boron-inter stitial silicon clusters remains below 2 nm. (C) 2001 American Institute of Physics.