Defect and strain in hydrogen and helium coimplanted single-crystal silicon

In this paper we studied the processes of blistering and exfoliation on the surface of crystal silicon, the evolution of defects/strains in the crystal silicon caused by hydrogen and helium coimplantation during annealing, and the formation of platelets and bubbles in the crystal. It is shown that H+ and He+ coimplantation produces a synergistic effect, which greatly decreases the total implantation dose, compared with either just H+ or He+ implantation. We also present the effect of coimplantation and analyse the different roles of H and He in the process of exfoliation during annealing. It seems that the essential role of hydrogen is to interact chemically with the defects in the silicon and create H-stabilized platelets, while the role of helium is to effuse into these platelets and exert a pressure on the inner surface of these platelets. The damage caused by coimplantation is lower than by hydrogen implantation (at the dose that exfoliation requires).