On the anomalous generation of 001 loops during laser annealing of ion-implanted silicon

LA Marques and M Aboy and I Santos and P Lopez and F Cristiano and A La Magna and K Huet and T Tabata and L Pelaz, NUCLEAR INSTRUMENTS & METHODS IN PHYSICS RESEARCH SECTION B-BEAM INTERACTIONS WITH MATERIALS AND ATOMS, 458, 179-183 (2019).

DOI: 10.1016/j.nimb.2018.09.030

We combine focused experiments with molecular dynamics simulations to investigate in detail the formation of 0 0 1 loops in nanosecond laser-annealed silicon. We demonstrate that at temperatures close to the melting point, self-interstitial rich silicon is driven into dense liquid-like droplets that are highly mobile within the solid crystalline matrix. These liquid droplets grow by a coalescence mechanism and eventually transform into 0 0 1 loops through a liquid-to-solid phase transition in the nanosecond timescale.

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