Hyperdoping Si with deep-level impurities by ion implantation and sub-second annealing

Intermediate band (IB) materials have attracted considerable research interest since they can dramatically enhance the near infrared light absorption and lead to applications in the fields of so-called intermediate band solar cells or infrared photodetectors. Hyperdoping Si with deep level impurities is one of the most effective approaches to form an IB inside Si. In this thesis, titanium (Ti) or chalcogen doped Si with concentrations far exceeding the Mott transition limits (~ 5×10^19 cm-3 for Ti) are fabricated by ion implantation followed by pulsed laser annealing (PLA) or flash lamp annealing (FLA). The structural and electrical properties of the implanted layer are investigated by channeling Rutherford backscattering spectrometry (cRBS) and Hall measurements. For Si supersaturated with Ti, it is shown that Ti-implanted Si after liquid phase epitaxy shows cellular breakdown at high doping concentrations during the rapid solidification, preventing Ti incorporation into Si matrix. However, the out-diffusion and the cellular breakdown can be effectively suppressed by solid phase epitaxy during FLA, leading to a much higher Ti incorporation. In addition, the formed microstructure of cellular breakdown also complicates the interpretation of the electrical properties. After FLA, the samples remain insulating even with the highest Ti implantation fluence, whereas the sheet resistance decreases with increasing Ti concentration after PLA. According to the results from conductive atomic force microscopy (C-AFM), the decrease of the sheet resistance after PLA is attributed to the percolation of Ti-rich cellular walls, but not to the insulator-to-metal transition due to Ti-doping. Se-hyperdoped Si samples with different Se concentrations are fabricated by ion implantation followed by FLA. The study of the structural properties of the implanted layer reveals that most Se atoms are located at substitutional lattice sites. Temperature-dependent sheet resistance shows that the insulator-to-metal transition occurs at a Se peak concentration of around 6.3 × 10^20 cm-3, proving the formation of an IB in host semiconductors. The correlation between the structural and electrical properties under different annealing processes is also investigated. The results indicate that the degrees of crystalline lattice recovery of the implanted layers and the Se substitutional fraction depend on pulse duration and energy density of the flash. The sample annealed at short pulse durations (1.3 ms) shows better conductivity than long pulse durations (20 ms). The electrical properties of the hyperdoped layers can be well-correlated to the structural properties resulting from different annealing processes.:Chapter 1 Introduction 1 1.1 Shallow and Deep level impurities in semiconductors 1 1.2 Challenges for hyperdoping semiconductors with deep level Impurities 2 1.3 Solid vs. liquid phase epitaxy 5 1.4 Previous work 7 1.4.1 Transition metal in Si 7 1.4.2 Chalcogens in Si 10 1.5 The organization of this thesis 15 Chapter 2 Experimental methods 18 2.1 Ion implantation 18 2.1.1 Basic principle of ion implantation 18 2.1.2 Ion implantation equipment 19 2.1.3 Energy loss 20 2.2 Pulsed laser annealing (PLA) 23 2.3 Flash lamp annealing (FLA) 24 2.4 Rutherford backscattering and channeling spectrometry (RBS/C) 27 2.4.1 Basic principles 27 2.4.2 Analysis of the elements in the target 28 2.4.3 Channeling and RBS/C 29 2.4.4 Analysis of the impurity lattice location 31 2.5 Hall measurements 31 2.5.1 Sample preparation 32 2.5.2 Resistivity 32 2.5.3 Hall measurements 33 Chapter 3 Suppressing the cellular breakdown in silicon supersaturated with titanium 34 3.1 Introduction 34 3.2 Experimental 35 3.3 Results 36 3.4 Conclusions 42 Chapter 4 Titanium-implanted silicon: does the insulator-to-metal transition really happen? 44 4.1 Introduction 44 4.2 Experimental section 45 4.3 Results 47 4.3.1 Recrystallization of Ti-implanted Si 47 4.3.2 Lattice location of Ti impurities 48 4.3.3 Electrical conduction 50 4.3.4 Surface morphology 52 4.3.5 Spatially resolved conduction 53 4.4 Discussion 55 4.5 Conclusion 56 Chapter 5 Realizing the insulator-to-metal transition in Se hyperdoped Si via non-equilibrium material processing 57 5.1 Introduction 57 5.2 Experimental 59 5.3 Results 60 5.4 Conclusions 65 Chapter 6 Structural and electrical properties of Se-hyperdoped Si via ion implantation and flash lamp annealing 67 6.1 Introduction 67 6.2 Experimental 68 6.3 Results 69 6.4 Conclusions 76 Chapter 7 Summary and outlook 78 7.1 Summary 78 7.2 Outlook 81 References 83 Publications 8