Recrystallization of Amorphous Layer

Abstract

We summarize effects of impurity concentration, kinds of impurity and crystal orientation on solid phase epitaxy (SPE) of silicon from amorphous layers created by ion implantation. SPE speed is significantly low for the wafer orientation of (111) and high for (100) orientation. The SPE speed is significantly enhanced by doping impurities, such as B, As, and P. N, O, and F retard the growth rate by one order, and the speed is almost zero for Ar and Xe. Random nuclear growth is a competing mechanism with SPE, and polycrystalline layer is formed where random nuclear growth rate is comparable with SPE.

Keywords: Ion implantation, solid phase epitaxy, random nuclear growth, amorphous layer, orientation, doping concentration, amorphous/crystal interface, electron beam aneal, dangling bond, lattice, RBS, B, As, P, O, F, Ne, Ar, Xe, Kr.