Toward a predictive atomistic model of ion implantation and dopant diffusion in silicon

We review the development and application of kinetic Monte Carlo simulations to investigate defect and dopant diffusion in ion implanted silicon. In these types of Monte Carlo models, defects and dopants are treated at the atomic scale, and move according to reaction rates given as input parameters. These input parameters can be obtained from first principles calculations and/or empirical molecular dynamics (MD) simulations or can be extracted from fits to experimental data. Time and length scales differing several orders of magnitude can be followed with this method, allowing for direct comparison with experiments. The different approaches are explained and some results presented. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.