Abstract:

Nanocalorimetry revealed that the annealing kinetics of ion-implanted defects in polycrystalline Si is independent of ion fluence and implantation energy. Ion implantation of 30 keV Si-, 15 keV Si-, and 15 keV C- was performed at fluences ranging from 6 x 10(11) to 1 X 10(15) atoms/cm(2), followed by temperature scans between 30 and 450 degreesC. The rate of heat release has the same shape for all fluences, featuring no peaks but rather a smooth, continuously increasing signal. This suggests that the heat release is dominated by the annealing of highly disordered zones generated by each implantation cascade. Such annealing depends primarily on the details of the damage zone-crystal interface kinetics, and not on the point defect concentration. (C) 2005 American Institute of Physics.