Enhanced eUmioatnon of imprantation damage upon exceeding the solid solubility

Implantation of silicon wafers with Ga and P, under specific conditions, results in enhanced category-II (end of range) dislocation loop elimination after short thermal cycling. Comparison of these results with transmission electron microscopy studies of Si-, Ge-, As-, AI-, and Sb-implanted samples indicate that the enhanced elimination process occurs only when the peak of the impurity concentration exceeds the solid solubility ofthe in. silicon at the annealing temperature and the resulting precipitates are dissolving. The actIvatIOn energy for enhanced elimination of these extrinsic catetory-II dislocation loops is shown to be 5 ± 0.5 eV. It is proposed that vacancy emission by the dissolving precipitates is responsible for the enhanced elimination.