B electrical activation in crystalline and preamorphized Ge

In this work we compare the B electrical activity in crystalline (c-Ge) and preamorphized Ge (PAI-Ge), in order to elucidate the activation mechanisms involved in the two cases and evidence the possible advantages of an approach over to the other. With this aim, we independently measured the hole fluence and the sheet resistance, thus extracting the carrier mobility, as a function of the implanted B fluence. In particular, we evidenced that it is possible to reproduce the metastability of the PAI process implanting B in c-Ge at very high fluences. However, by properly choosing the implantation conditions in c-Ge, in such a way to disable dynamic annealing during implantation, the activation of B can be raised up to the level attainable in PAI-Ge also for lower B fluences. Finally, the thermal evolution of the formed junction was tested, evidencing a high stability under annealing up to 550 °C in both c- and PAI-Ge. © 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.