Effect of thermal processing on the structure and optical properties of crystalline silicon with GaSb nanocrystals formed with the aid of high-doze ion implantation

Rutherford backscattering and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) are used to study distributions of impurities and structure of the GaSb + Si nanocomposites in several regimes of ion implantation and thermal processing. It is demonstrated that the hot implantation and annealing lead to a significant loss of impurity and the shift of the maximum concentration of impurity atoms toward the surface. The TEM data prove the formation of nanocrystals with sizes ranging from 20 to 100 nm, dislocation defects, and residual mechanical stresses. Raman spectroscopy is used to study the structure and phase composition of experimental silicon samples containing various nanocrystalline impurities.