Structure, content, and properties of Zn ion hot-implanted and thermal-oxidated Si

The impurity cluster formation in Zn ion hot-implanted and subsequently thermal-oxidized Si substrates are studied. After implantation on sample surface and in sample near-surface layer, the metallic Zn clusters with the average size near 200 nm on sample surface and the clusters with size about 20 nm in a sample body were created. After annealing at 700 °C, there was transformation from metal Zn clusters to its oxide form such as ZnO(core)/ZnSiO(shell) on a sample surface and conservation of the metallic Zn phase in a sample body. We propose an explanation of this phenomenon by temperature dependence of the oxygen molecules diffusion in silicon body and zinc atom opposite moving to the sample surface during annealing.