Atomic-Scale Characterization of N-Doped Si Nanocrystals Embedded in SiO2 by Atom Probe Tomography

Rémi DEMOULIN (1) , Manuel Roussel (1) , Sébastien Duguay (1) , Dominique Muller (2) , Daniel Mathiot (2) , Philippe Pareige (1) , Etienne Talbot (1)

1 GPM - Groupe de physique des matériaux
2 ICube - Laboratoire des sciences de l'ingénieur, de l'informatique et de l'imagerie

Structural properties of undoped, As-doped, and P-doped silicon nanocrystals (Si-Ncs) embedded in a SiO 2 matrix have been investigated using atom probe tomography. It turns out that both As and P atomic distributions have the same behavior in such system, withthe efficient incorporation of impurities in the core of Si-Ncs even in the smallest ones (<2 nm). The impurity level measured in Si-Ncs is strongly size-dependent, and statistically, the smallest Si-Ncs can contain the heaviest doping composition. Moreover, this study reveals an influence of the dopant nature on the kinetic growth of Si-Ncs, leading to the clustering of larger nanocrystals in P-doped samples.

Domains: Physics [physics]; Condensed Matter [cond-mat]; Materials Science [cond-mat.mtrl-sci]

Rémi DEMOULIN, Manuel Roussel, Sébastien Duguay, Dominique Muller, Daniel Mathiot, et al.. Atomic-Scale Characterization of N-Doped Si Nanocrystals Embedded in SiO2 by Atom Probe Tomography. Journal of Physical Chemistry C, 2019, 123 (12), pp.7381-7389. ⟨10.1021/acs.jpcc.8b08620⟩. ⟨hal-02082140⟩