Hydrogen-enhanced self-organization of interstitial-type defect aggregations in silicon

Influence of hydrogen impurity on nanocluster formation of interstitial-type defects in silicon has been studied by means of electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) along with uniaxial stress experiments. We demonstrate that hydrogen implantation in silicon strongly stimulates self-assembling formation of self-interstitial nanoclusters during annealing of sample at 600–700 K. In aluminum-doped silicon implanted with hydrogen at 80 and 300 K, new defects are observed and were interpreted as arising from aluminum clusters containing more than two aluminum atoms. These clusters are created by hydrogen-enhanced low-temperature diffusion of aluminum atoms.