METHOD USING REFLECTION HIGH-ENERGY ELECTRON-DIFFRACTION INTENSITY TO DETERMINE THE SOLID SOLUBILITY LIMIT FOR BORON IN SILICON AND SI1-XGEX LAYERS

Reflection high-energy electron diffraction (RHEED) intensity measurements have been used as a new in situ method to determine the apparent B solid solubility in Si1-xGex(x greater-than-or-equal-to 0) during molecular beam epitaxy. An increasing solid solubility of B with Ge concentration support a strain compensating effect of Ge codeposited with B. It is shown that B incorporation at very high doping concentrations cannot be explained by conventional dopant incorporation theory, but it fits a zeroth order incorporation model. The RHEED intensity results are supported by Auger electron spectroscopy (AES) studies.