Simulation Of Boron Diffusion In The Near-Surface Region Of Silicon Substrate

The mechanism of boron-enhanced diffusion from a thin boron layer deposited on the surface in the case of silicon crystal doping is proposed and investigated. It was supposed that lattice contraction occurs in the vicinity of the surface due to the difference between the atomic radii of boron and silicon. This lattice contraction provides a stress-mediated diffusion of silicon self-interstitials from the near-surface region to the bulk of a semiconductor. Due to the stress-mediated diffusion, the near-surface region is depleted of silicon self-interstitials, and simultaneous oversaturation of this species occurs in the bulk. In this way, a strong nonuniform distribution of silicon self-interstitials in the vicinity of the surface is formed without regard to the large migration length of this species. The oversaturation of the bulk of a semiconductor with nonequilibrium self-interstitials allows one to explain the boron-enhanced diffusion of impurity atoms. The strong nonuniform distribution of these point defects also results in a specific form of boron concentration profile in the vicinity of the surface. Good agreement of the calculated boron profile with the experimental data for the entire doped region was obtained within the limit of the proposed model.