SEM and SIMS study of the buried SixNy layer formed in silicon

Standard 20 Ωcm boron doped Cz Si wafers were subjected to 100 keV hydrogen ion implantation at room temperature to fluences of 1 × 1016 or 4 × 1016 at/cm2. Subsequently, nitrogen was incorporated in silicon from a DC plasma source at a temperature of 300 °C. Finally, all samples were annealed at 700 °C for 2 h in vacuum. Structural properties of samples were studied by SIMS and SEM. The SEM study was carried out both in the secondary electrons (SE) and the Surface-Electron-Beam-Induced-Voltage (SEBIV) modes. The experiments have demonstrated that incorporated from plasma nitrogen atoms were accumulated in the buried damage layer and the formed nitrogen-containing layer has an island-like structure.