GETTERING OF AU ATOMS IN SILICON INDUCED BY ION-IMPLANTATION

A series of gettering experiments has been carried out with a view to obtaining a better understanding of the gettering mechanism of Au atoms in silicon. Neutron activation techniques were used to study the yield of ion-implantation gettering of gold in gold-equilibrated silicon samples. The implantation species was bombarded by 100 keV neon ions to the doses 5 x 10(15), 10(16) and 5 x 10(16) ions cm-2. Next, annealing at temperatures 600-degrees-C, 800-degrees-C and 1000-degrees-C, respectively was performed. The experimental results of gettering yield G(exp) were compared with theoretical values G(the). In this paper we propose a gettering model based on the dissociative mechanism of diffusion. We suggest that, for temperatures up to about 900-degrees-C, the predominant gettering of Au atoms is governed by this mechanism.