Effect of uniform stress on silicon implanted with helium, hydrogen and oxygen

The effect of annealing at up to 1550 K under argon pressure up to 1.5 GPa (high temperature–high pressure (HT–HP) treatment) on silicon implanted with helium, hydrogen or oxygen (Si:He, Si:H or Si:O) was investigated by X-ray, secondary ions mass spectrometry (SIMS), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), photoluminescence (PL), and electrical methods. The HT–HP treatment of Si:He results in decrease of defect concentration. The treatment at 720 K, 1.1 GPa for 10 h resulted in unchanged strain (while annealing at 720 K, 105 Pa – in its marked decrease) and in enhancement of thermal donor (TD) concentration. A similar treatment of Si:H resulted in suppression of hydrogen out-diffusion with its pronounced diffusion into sample depth and stress-stimulated creation of small defects/TD. Generation of dislocations was strongly suppressed in the HT–HP treated Si:O samples. The observed effects were explained accounting for HP-induced suppression of helium and hydrogen out-diffusion from Si:He and Si:H, and for a decrease of misfit at the oxygen precipitate/Si boundary in Si:O.