Damage annealing behavior in diatomic phosphorus ion implanted silicon

The damaging effect of diatomic phosphorus ions implanted into silicon was compared with that of atomic ions in the range between 25 and 300 keV/atom. Dose was around 1014 ions/cm2. This target temperature varied between 77 and 533 K. Below and at 300 K the ''damage enhancement factor'', defined as one ratio of damage produced by equivalent molecular and atomic ion implantation, varied from 1 to 1.6 depending on the incident energy. At elevated implantation temperature this factor increased by almost an order of magnitude. In interpreting the experimental results, fluctuations in damage structure inside the volume of collision cascades was proposed. The conclusions are believed to be relevant for other molecular implantations, e.g. for BF2+. (author)