Structural characterization of buried nitride layers formed by nitrogen ion implantation in silicon

The synthesis of buried silicon nitride insulating layers was carried out by SIMNI (separation by implanted nitrogen) process using implantation of 140 keV nitrogen (¹⁴N⁺) ions at fluence of 1.0 × 10¹⁷, 2.5 × 10¹⁷ and 5.0 × 10¹⁷ cm⁻² into 〈1 1 1〉 single crystal silicon substrates held at elevated temperature (410 °C). The structures of ion-beam synthesized buried silicon nitride layers were studied by X-ray diffraction (XRD) technique. The XRD studies reveal the formation of hexagonal silicon nitride (Si₃N₄) structure at all fluences. The concentration of the silicon nitride phase was found to be dependent on the ion fluence. The intensity and full width at half maximum (FWHM) of XRD peak were found to increase with increase in ion fluence. The Raman spectra for samples implanted with different ion fluences show crystalline silicon (c-Si) substrate peak at wavenumber 520 cm⁻¹. The intensity of the silicon peak was found to decrease with increase in ion fluence.