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Depth-Dependent Imaging of Individual Dopant Atoms in Silicon

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 March 2004

P.M. Voyles ,
D.A. Muller  and
E.J. Kirkland
P.M. Voyles
Affiliation:
Bell Laboratories, Lucent Technologies, Murray Hill, NJ 07974-0636, USA P.M. Voyles is now at the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Wisconsin–Madison, 1509 University Ave., Madison, WI 53706, USA.
D.A. Muller
Affiliation:
Bell Laboratories, Lucent Technologies, Murray Hill, NJ 07974-0636, USA
E.J. Kirkland
Affiliation:
School of Applied and Engineering Physics, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA
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Abstract

We have achieved atomic-resolution imaging of single dopant atoms buried inside a crystal, a key goal for microelectronic device characterization, in Sb-doped Si using annular dark-field scanning transmission electron microscopy. In an amorphous material, the dopant signal is largely independent of depth, but in a crystal, channeling of the electron probe causes the image intensity of the atomic columns to vary with the depths of the dopants in each column. We can determine the average dopant concentration in small volumes, and, at low concentrations, the depth in a column of a single dopant. Dopant atoms can also serve as tags for experimental measurements of probe spreading and channeling. Both effects remain crucial even with spherical aberration correction of the probe. Parameters are given for a corrected Bloch-wave model that qualitatively describes the channeling at thicknesses <20 nm, but does not account for probe spreading at larger thicknesses. In thick samples, column-to-column coupling of the probe can make a dopant atom appear in the image in a different atom column than its physical position.

Keywords

Z-contrast STEMelectron channelingmultislice simulation
Type
Materials Applications
Information
Microscopy and Microanalysis , Volume 10 , Issue 2 , April 2004 , pp. 291 - 300
Copyright
© 2004 Microscopy Society of America

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