Suppression of donor-vacancy clusters in germanium by concurrent annealing and irradiation

Diffusion of phosphorous and arsenic in germanium under in situ proton irradiation has been performed and analyzed with secondary ion mass spectrometry. Dopant profiles corresponding to proton-exposed regions exhibit a higher penetration depth and more pronounced box shape than profiles of nonexposed regions. Continuum theoretical simulations reveal that diffusion under irradiation is much less affected by inactive donor-vacancy clusters than diffusion under annealing only. The suppression of donor-vacancy clusters is caused by interstitials in supersaturation and vacancy concentrations close to thermal equilibrium. Concurrent annealing and irradiation have the potential to attain high active doping levels in Ge.