Nd: YAG laser annealing of gallium-implanted silicon.

A Q-switched Nd: YAG laser with a pulse duration of 20 ns was used to investigate effects of laser annealing in gallium implanted silicon. Rutherford backscattering and Hall-effect measurements were performed to evaluate the annealed layer. Differential Hall-effect measurements were carried out to obtain carrier concentration profiles after annealing. It was found that a maximum sheet carrier concentration of 8×10 cm can be obtained for a gallium implantation of 10 cm by laser annealing with an energy density of more than 1.0 J cm. Although the peak carrier concentration was found to be 8.0×10 cm, the annealed layer showed polycrystalline structures even after annealing with an energy density up to 4J cm. The annealing took place in the solid phase in this energy density range. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]