A Novel Route for the Inclusion of Metal Dopants in Silicon

TL;DR

This paper introduces a low-cost, low-temperature UV irradiation method for doping silicon with metal atoms, specifically manganese, potentially enabling ordered dopant arrays for semiconductor applications.

Contribution

A novel UV-based technique for metal doping in silicon that operates with negligible thermal budget and may enable new dopant array fabrication methods.

Findings

Mn is incorporated as an interstitial dopant in Si.

The method uses UV irradiation of molecular thin films.

Potential for low-cost, low-temperature dopant patterning.

Abstract

We report a new method to introduce metal atoms into silicon wafers, using negligible thermal budget. Molecular thin films are irradiated with ultra-violet (UV) light releasing metal species into the semiconductor substrate. Secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) and X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) show that Mn is incorporated into Si as an interstitial dopant. We propose that our method can form the basis of a generic low-cost, low-temperature technology that could lead to the creation of ordered dopant arrays.