Hyperdoping of silicon: A last niche of defect engineering?

Hyperdoping of silicon using ion implantation and short time annealing of chalcogen atoms and transition metals (e.g. S, Se, Te, Au and Ti) appears as a challenging and promising research topic for developing Si-based infrared photodetectors and intermediate band solar cells [i.e.1-3].
The specific physical properties, such as a near-unity broadband absorption (particularly below the Si bandgap), a large enhancement of sub-band-gap photocurrent generation, and the insulator-to-metal transition, are based on this type of doping much above the solid solubility limit of dopants in Si. We have recently been demonstrated that both, laser annealing via the liquid phase and flash lamp annealing via the solid phase can be used to process such high-dose chalcogen-implanted layers [2]. Such kind of non-equilibrium processing needs a careful adjustment of the processing parameters, especially in regard to the “thermal engineering” with processing times at or below the millisecond range, to optimize the defect engineering of this specific type of hyperdoped material. We will report on the microstructural, optical and electrical properties of this new type of silicon material as well as first applications for room-temperature extended infrared Si p-n photodiodes.
[1] J. P. Mailoa, A. J. Akey, C. B. Simmons, D. Hutchinson, J. Mathews, J. T. Sullivan, D. Recht, M. T. Winkler, J. S. Williams, J. M. Warrender, P. D. Persans, M. J. Aziz, and T. Buonassisi, Nat. Commun. 5, 3011 (2014).
[2] S. Zhou, F. Liu, S. Prucnal, K. Gao, M. Khalid, C. Baehtz, M. Posselt, W. Skorupa, and M. Helm, Sci. Rep. 5, 8329 (2015).
[3] F. Liu, S Prucnal, R. Hübner, Ye Yuan, W Skorupa, M Helm, and S. Zhou, J.Phys.D: Appl.Phys. 49 (2016) 245104.