The effect of excimer laser pretreatment on diffusion and activation of boron implanted in silicon

We have investigated the effect of excimer laser annealing (ELA) on transient enhanced diffusion (TED) and activation of boron implanted in Si during subsequent rapid thermal annealing (RTA). It is observed that ELA with partial melting of the implanted region causes reduction of TED in the region that remains solid during ELA, where the diffusion length of boron is reduced by a factor of similar to 4 as compared to the as-implanted sample. This is attributed to several mechanisms such as liquid-state annealing of a fraction of the implantation induced defects, introduction of excess vacancies during ELA, and solid-state annealing of the defects beyond the maximum melting depth by the heat wave propagating into the Si wafer. The ELA pretreatment provides a substantially improved electrical activation of boron during subsequent RTA.