The formation and evolution of vacancy-type defects in Ar-implanted silicon studied by slow-positron annihilation spectroscopy

The Doppler broadening spectrum of a silicon wafer was measured using a variable-energy positron beam to investigate the effects of vacancy-type defects induced by 180 keV Ar ion implantation. The S-parameter in the damaged layer decreases with annealing temperature up to 673 K, and then increases with annealing temperature from 673 to 1373 K. At low annealing temperatures ranging from room temperature to 673 K, argon-decorated vacancies are formed by argon atoms combining with open-volume defects at inactive positron sites. With further increase of annealing temperature, argon-decorated vacancies dissociate and subsequently migrate and coalesce, leading to an increase of S-parameter. Furthermore, the buried vacancy-layer becomes narrow with increasing annealing temperature. At 1373 K, the buried vacancy-layer moved towards the sample surface.