Point defects migration and agglomeration at Si at room temperature: The role of surface and impurity content

Our recent work on the room temperature migration and trapping phenomena of self-interstitials and vacancies in crystalline Si is reviewed. Spreading resistance profiling and deep level transient spectroscopy measurements were used to monitor the interaction of ion beam generated defects with dopant atoms, intrinsic impurities (i.e. O and C), pre-existing defect marker layers and sample surface. We have found that both interstitials and vacancies undergo fast long range migration which is interrupted by trapping at impurities and by recombination at defects or at the surface. Effective defect migration lengths as large as 5 I-lm at room temperature have been observed in highly pure, defect free epitaxial Si samples. A lower limit of 1x10(-10) cm(2)/sec for the room temperature diffusivity of self-interstitials has been determined. Furthermore, by monitoring the migration and interaction processes of point defects injected through a mask, we have established that surface acts as an effective sink for the migrating Si self interstitials.