Three-dimensional atom mapping of dopants in Si nanostructures

Atom-probe tomography has successfully mapped three-dimensional (3D) dopant atom distributions in nanoscale volumes of Si subjected to various processing procedures. The 3D evolution of dopants, specifically effects such as dopant clustering and grain-boundary segregation, were analyzed in implanted polycrystalline Si gate contacts and implanted shallow junctions. A cluster of dimensions 2x7x8 nm(3) and containing 264 B atoms, was identified at the intersection of three poly-Si grains, verifying that annealing highly overdoped thin poly-Si layers does not facilitate uniformly doped and highly conductive gate contact layers. (c) 2005 American Institute of Physics.