Rapid thermal annealing characteristics of P+-ion-implanted Si(100) wafers studied by spectroscopic ellipsometry

Spectroscopic ellipsometry (SE) has been used to study structural changes in PI-ion-implanted and rapid thermally annealed Si(100) wafers. P+ ion implantation was performed at 150keV and a fluence of 2 x 10(15) cm(-2) at room temperature. Rapid thermal annealing was performed between 550 degrees and 600 degrees C in a dry N-2 atmosphere. A model dielectric function (MDF), which was developed for modeling the optical constants of crystalline semiconductors, has been applied to investigate the optical properties of the ion-implanted and annealed layers. The recrystallization is found to occur from an amorphous/crystalline interface via two different thermally activated stages. The fast recrystallization rate of similar to 10-200 angstrom/s, represented by that in the first stage, is probably caused by the rapid reordering of a poorly disordered region in the damage profile tail. Regular recrystallization subsequently occurs, which proceeds at a rate of similar to 1-20 angstrom/s. The activation energies for the first and second recrystallization stages are determined to be 3.3 and 3.0 eV, respectively.