Incorporation of gold into silicon by thin film deposition and pulsed laser melting

We report on the incorporation ofgold intosilicon at a peak concentration of 1.9  × 1020 at./cm3, four orders of magnitude above the equilibrium solubility limit, usingpulsed laser melting of athin filmdeposited on thesilicon surface. We vary thefilm thickness and laser process parameters (fluence, number of shots) to quantify the range of concentrations that can be achieved. Our approach achievesgold concentrations comparable to those achieved withion implantation followed bypulsed laser melting, in a layer with high crystalline quality. This approach offers an attractive alternative toion implantation for forming high quality, high concentration layers of transition metals likegold insilicon.

Source: Applied Physics Letters - December 7, 2016 Category: Physics Authors: Jeffrey M. Warrender, Quentin Hudspeth, Girish Malladi, Harry Efstathiadis and Jay Mathews Source Type: research