Synthesis of Buried Silicon Compounds Using Ion Implantation.

Ion implantation is widely used for doping semiconductors at low concentration, but, with the advent of a new generation of high current implanters, synthesizing new materials rather then simply doping them has become feasible. This technique has been successfully applied to fabricating silicon-on-insulator (SOI) structures with oxygen and nitrogen for several years. Since we are interested in understanding the mechanisms of formation of these layers, we have concentrated on sub-stoichiometric implantation doses of oxygen where it is easier to observe the coalescing layer. In order to determine whether this process of compound formation is more general, our studies were expanded to include implantation of the transition metals. Here, elevated substrate temperatures are necessary to minimize Si surface damage. The resulting disilicide layers are of remarkably high quality: they are single crystals in registry with the silicon wafer and they have better residual resistivities than comparable UHV-reacted silicides.