Oxygen and hydrogen accumulation at buried implantation-damage layers in hydrogen- and helium-implanted Czochralski silicon

Abstract.

Oxygen and hydrogen accumulations at buried implantation-damage layers were studied after post-implant-ation annealing of hydrogen- and helium-implanted Czochralski (Cz) silicon. Hydrogen implantation was carried out at energies E=180 keV and doses D=2.7×10¹⁶ cm^-2, and helium implantation at E=300 keV and D=10¹⁶ cm^-2. For comparison hydrogen implantation was also done into float-zone (Fz) silicon wafers. Post-implantation annealing at 1000 °C was done either in H₂ or N₂ atmosphere. Hydrogen and oxygen concentration profiles were measured by secondary ion mass spectroscopy (SIMS). It is shown that the ambient during annealing plays a significant role for the gettering of oxygen at buried implantation-damage layers in Cz Si. For both hydrogen and helium implantations, the buried defect layers act as rather effective getter centers for oxygen and hydrogen at appropriate conditions. The more efficient gettering of oxygen during post-implantation annealing in a hydrogen ambient can be attributed to a hydrogen-enhanced diffusion of oxygen towards the buried implantation-damage layers, where a fast oxygen accumulation occurs. Oxygen concentrations well above 10¹⁹ cm^-3 can be obtained. From the comparison of measurements on hydrogen-implanted Cz Si and Fz Si one can conclude that at the buried defect layers hydrogen is most probably trapped by voids and/or may be stable as immobile molecular hydrogen species. Therefore hydrogen accumulated at the defect layers, and is preserved even after high-temperature annealing at 1000 °C.