Effect of fluorine implantation dose on boron thermal diffusion in silicon

This paper investigates how the thermal diffusion of boron in silicon is influenced by a high energy fluorine implant with a dose in the range 531014–2.331015 cm−2. Secondary Ion Mass Spectroscopy (SIMS) profiles of boron marker layers are presented for different fluorine doses and compared with fluorine profiles to establish the conditions under which thermal boron diffusion is suppressed. The (SIMS) profiles show significantly reduced boron thermal diffusion above a critical F+ dose of 0.9–1.431015 cm−2. Fitting of the measured boron profiles gives suppressions of the boron thermal diffusion coefficient by factors of 1.9 and 3.7 for F+ implantation doses of 1.4 31015 and 2.331015 cm−2, respectively. The suppression of boron thermal diffusion above the critical fluorine dose correlates with the appearance of a shallow fluorine peak on the (SIMS) profile in the vicinity of the boron marker layer. This shallow fluorine peak is present in samples with and without boron marker layers, and hence it is not due to a chemical interaction between the boron and the fluorine. Analysis of the (SIMS) profiles and cross-section Transmission Electron Microscope micrographs suggests that it is due to the trapping of fluorine at vacancy-fluorine clusters, and that the suppression of the boron thermal diffusion is due to the effect of the clusters in suppressing the interstitial concentration in the vicinity of the boron profile. © 2004 American Institute of Physics. [DOI: 10.1063/1.1790063]