Abstract
The competition between solid phase epitaxy and random nucleation in amorphous Si implanted with Cu and Ag has been studied. At low metal concentrations, solid phase epitaxy proceeds with slight deviations from the intrinsic rate, with the impurity segregated and evenly distributed in the amorphous layer. At an impurity concentration of 0.12 at. %, rapid nucleation occurs, transforming the remaining layer into polycrystalline Si. The nucleation rate is ≥108 the intrinsic homogeneous rate. The effects of the metals on epitaxy scale with the amount of metal-Si interaction. Nucleation appears to occur when the metal impurities exceed their absolute solubility limit and begin to phase separate.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 820-829 |
| Number of pages | 10 |
| Journal | Journal of Materials Research |
| Volume | 8 |
| Issue number | 4 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Apr 1993 |
| Externally published | Yes |
Funding
We are indebted to G. L. Olson and J. A. Roth for helpful discussions, particularly on possible mechanisms for the influence of Au on epitaxy rates, and E. Nygren for stimulating us to estimate To. We would also like to thank D. A. Lillienfeld for the STEM work. Work at Cornell was supported by NSF-PYIA (J. Hurt) and the SRC through the Cornell Microscience & Technology Program.