Secondary defect dissolution by voids in silicon

Clustering of point defects into dislocations as a consequence of ion implantation and annealing in silicon has been inhibited through the presence of cavities produced by helium ion implantation and located at depths up to 1 mu m. We will show that annealing at 1200 degrees C will result in the complete absence of extended defects for the case of either partial damage produced by boron ion implantation or continuous amorphous layers produced by germanium implantation. The suppression of dislocation formation does not depend on the depth at which cavities are located, on their density and on the purity of the adopted silicon wafer. The results are interpreted on the basis of the measured efficiency of voids in the capture of interstitial silicon atoms. (C) 1996 American Institute of Physics.