Characterization of interstitial defect clusters in ion-implanted Si

We have investigated the properties of Si interstitial clusters in ion implanted crystalline Si. Deep Level Transient Spectroscopy measurements have been used to characterize the residual damage in Si samples implanted with Si ions at fluence in the range 1x109-1x1012/cm2 and annealed at temperatures of 100-700 °C. We have found that, in the flu-ence and annealing temperature range where extended defects are not formed, the residual damage is dominated by Si interstitial clusters which introduce deep levels at EV+0.36 eV and at EV+0.53 eV. By using Si substrates with a different impurity and dopant content, we have found that C, O and B play a role in determining the defect growth kinetics but are not the main constituents of these clusters. We estimate that 40 to 125 Si self interstitials are stored in these clusters and believe that they are the main source of Si self-interstitials in transient enhanced diffusion phenomena occurring in the absence of {311} or extended defects.