Enhanced Electrical Activation in In-Implanted Si_0.35Ge_0.65 by C Co-Doping

ABSTRACT

In this report, we have achieved a significant increase in the electrically active dopant fraction in Indium (In)-implanted Si_0.35Ge_0.65, by co-doping with the isovalent element Carbon (C). Electrical measurements have been correlated with X-ray absorption spectroscopy to determine the electrical properties and the In atom lattice location. With C + In co-doping, the solid solubility of In in Si_0.35Ge_0.65 was at least tripled from between 0.02 and 0.06 at% to between 0.2 and 0.6 at% as a result of C–In pair formation, which suppressed In metal precipitation. A dramatic improvement of electrical properties was thus attained in the co-doped samples.

GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT

IMPACT STATEMENT

This work is the first to demonstrate that co-doping Carbon (C) with Indium (In) in SiGe is an effective strategy for obtaining high electrically active dopant fractions, which benefits advanced complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) devices performance.

KEYWORDS:

• SiGe
• C + In co-doping
• X-ray absorption fine structure
• Hall Effect

Acknowledgements

We acknowledge access to NCRIS and AMMRF infrastructure at the Australian National University including the Australian National Fabrication Facility, the Heavy Ion Accelerator Capability and the Center for Advanced Microscopy.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Salvy P. Russo http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3589-3040

Additional information

Funding

We also thank the Australian Research Council and Australian Synchrotron for support.