Annealing Of Si Surface Region Modified By Plasma Immersion Implantation Of Nitrogen

In the present work, the formation of a nano-scale Si surface layer is studied after high-temperature annealing of Si modified by shallow plasma immersion implantation of nitrogen with fluences of 10(16) - 10(18) cm(-2). The implanted profiles of the atomic (N+) and molecular nitrogen (N-2(+)) are modeled by SRIM for different annealing durations taking into account the diffusion process. The presence of Si-O and Si-N bonds is established by Fourier (FTIR) spectral analysis and spectroscopic ellipsometry (SE). The refractive index value measured at 632.8 nm varies between 1.46 and 1.59, corresponding to a low y/x ratio. The models using VIS and IR ellipsometric data reveal formation of nanostructured SiOxNy layer with Si inclusions.