CHEMICAL BONDING AND INTERFACE ANALYSIS OF ULTRATHIN SILICON-NITRIDE LAYERS PRODUCED BY ION-IMPLANTATION AND ELECTRON-BEAM RAPID THERMAL ANNEALING (EB-RTA)

N-15(2+) ions were implanted into c-Si with an energy of 5 keV/atom and fluences ranging from 5 x 10(16) to 2 x 10(17) atoms/cm2 at RT to form ultrathin silicon-nitride layers (SiN(x)) with different N/Si ratios depending on the fluences (up to an overstoichiometric N/Si ratio of 1.65). The N-15 depth distributions were analysed by the resonant nuclear reaction N-15 (p, alphagamma)C-12(E(res) = 429 keV). The implanted samples were processed by Electron Beam Rapid Thermal Annealing (EB-RTA) at 1150-degrees-C for 15 s (ramping up and down 5-degrees-C/s). The chemical structure of the N-15 implantation into Si was investigated by EXAFS and NEXAFS. Channeling-RBS (He-4+, E0 = 1.5 MeV) measurements were performed to observe the transition region (disordered-Si layer, d-Si) being underneath of the SiN(x) layer (typical values of layer thicknesses: SiN(x) 24 nm, d-Si 6 nm).