Effect of heat treatment modes on the structure and optical properties of silicon layers hyperdoped with selenium

Selenium hyperdoped silicon layers were obtained by Se ion implantation (3.1 · 10¹⁵ cm^–2, 140 keV) followed by three types of isothermal heat treatment and using pulsed laser annealing (PLA, 70 ns, 2 J/cm²). Rutherford backscattering spectrometry (RBS) of He+ ions in random and channeled modes and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) were employed to analyze the structure, concentration depth distributions of the implanted impurity and impurity in the Si crystal lattice sites before and after heat treatments. The results obtained by the RBS method indicate that after PLA, 72 % of the introduced impurity is in a substitutional position, and part of it goes to the surface. At isothermal annealing ~ 50 % of Se atoms get into the Si lattice sites, a part of them goes to the drain at the depth corresponding to the initial amorphous layer – crystal interface before heat treatment. A noticeable increase in optical absorption (~ 20 %) in the IR range (1.1–2.5 μm) was registered only at PLA of the implanted layer, and for isothermal annealing it did not exceed 1–2 %. The results of the studies indicate that most of the Se atoms in the sites of the silicon matrix lattice are in electrically inactive states after equilibrium heat treatments. This effect can be explained by the formation of a large number of neutral complexes of selenium atoms, when they are embedded in neighboring sites of the silicon lattice and form covalent bonds with each other. Selenium supersaturated silicon layers are a promising material for the fabrication of efficient broadband photodetectors and solar cells with an embedded intermediate subzone in the silicon forbidden zone. 

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