Hyperdoping of silicon with deep-level impurities by pulsed YAG laser melting

Hyperdoping with deep-level impurity is a promising method to prepare intermediate band semiconductors. We prepared silicon hyperdoped with deep-level impurities, sulfur and titanium, by ion implantation followed by pulsed YAG laser melting. The processes of sulfur and titanium hyperdoping are comparatively studied. The amorphous sulfur and titanium ion-implanted layers changed to monocrystal by following pulsed laser melting. The depth profile of sulfur impurity after pulsed laser melting is similar to that of ion-implanted sample, while large segregation is observed for titanium hyperdoping. The crystallinity and degree of segregation depend on the laser shot number and initially implanted titanium dose. There is a trade-off between crystallinity and depth profile of impurity for titanium hyperdoping. From a viewpoint material processing, formation of high-quality silicon monocrystal hyperdoped with sulfur is easier than that with titanium. Correlation between the mid-infrared optical absorption and photoconductivity is also discussed for sulfur-hyperdoped sample.