Pulsed laser annealing is a relevant alternative to conventional thermal processes for future technology nodes as it enables the application of a fast and local thermal budget. Such high-energy process can lead to the formation of a liquid phase that recrystallizes upon heat dissipation, through a high velocity liquid/solid interface moving towards the surface. Here, we report on the evolution of the liquid/solid interface roughness and its influence on the crystallinity of Si1-xGex layers depending on multiple parameters (strain state, doping level, Ge content, and pulse duration). This has been conducted with a roughness quantification method based on cross-section STEM-HAADF micrographs. It has been established that the liquid/solid roughness can be decreased by: (i) a compressive strain decrease, (ii) the use of short duration laser pulses or (iii) a reduction of the initial Ge content. The Ge content and strain must correspond to suitable values for optimized MOSFET performances. Consequently, strain and pulse duration were found to be pertinent levers for liquid/solid interface roughness reduction. Increasing the amount of boron atoms in s-Si1-xGex:B/Si systems is another relevant strategy, as compressive strain decrease would then be associated with a beneficial contact resistance lowering in the source-drain regions of p-type MOSFET devices.

Superconductivity in ultra-doped Si_1-xGe_x:B epilayers is demonstrated by nanosecond laser doping, which allows introducing substitutional B concentrations well above the solubility limit and up to 7 at.%. A Ge fraction x ranging from 0 to 0.21 is incorporated in Si:B : 1) through a precursor gas by Gas Immersion Laser Doping; 2) by ion implantation, followed by nanosecond laser annealing; 3) by UHV-CVD growth of a thin Ge layer, followed by nanosecond laser annealing. The 30 nm and 80 nm thick Si_1-xGe_x:B epilayers display superconducting critical temperatures T_c tuned by B and Ge between 0 and 0.6 K. Within BCS weak-coupling theory, T_c evolves exponentially with both the density of states and the electron-phonon potential. While B doping affects both, through the increase of the carrier density and the tensile strain, Ge incorporation allows addressing independently the lattice deformation influence on superconductivity. To estimate the lattice parameter modulation with B and Ge, Vegard's law is validated for the ternary SiGeB bulk alloy by Density Functional Theory calculations. Its validity is furthermore confirmed experimentally by X-Ray Diffraction. We highlight a global linear dependence of T_c vs. lattice parameter, common for both Si:B and Si_1-xGe_x:B, with δ T_c/T_c ∼ 50 % for δ a/a ∼ 1 %.

We present superconducting monocrystalline silicon-on-insulator thin 33 nm epilayers. They are obtained by nanosecond laser annealing under ultra-high vacuum on 300 mm wafers heavily pre-implanted with boron (2.5 × 1016 at./cm2, 3 keV). Superconductivity is discussed in relation to the structural, electrical, and material properties, a step toward the integration of ultra-doped superconducting Si at large scale. In particular, we highlight the effect of the nanosecond laser annealing energy and the impact of multiple laser anneals. Increasing the energy leads to a linear increase in the layer thickness and to the increase in the superconducting critical temperature Tc from zero (< 35 mK) to 0.5 K. This value is comparable with superconducting Si layers realized by gas immersion laser doping, where dopants are incorporated without introducing the deep defects associated with implantation. Superconductivity only appears when the annealed depth exceeds the initial amorphous layer induced by the boron implantation. Multiple subsequent anneals result in a more homogeneous doping with reduced amount of structural defects and increased conductivity. The quantitative analysis of Tc concludes on a superconducting–non-superconducting bilayer with an extremely low resistance interface. This highlights the possibility to efficiently couple superconducting Si to Si channels.

Superconductivity in ultra-doped $Si_{1-x}Ge_{x}:B$ epilayers is demonstrated by nanosecond laser doping, which allows introducing substitutional B concentrations well above the solubility limit and up to $7\,at.\%$. A Ge fraction $x$ ranging from 0 to 0.21 is incorporated in $Si:B$ : 1) through a precursor gas by Gas Immersion Laser Doping; 2) by ion implantation, followed by nanosecond laser annealing; 3) by UHV-CVD growth of a thin Ge layer, followed by nanosecond laser annealing. The 30 nm and 80 nm thick $Si_{1-x}Ge_{x}:B$ epilayers display superconducting critical temperatures $T_c$ tuned by B and Ge between 0 and 0.6 K. Within BCS weak-coupling theory, $T_c$ evolves exponentially with both the density of states and the electron-phonon potential. While B doping affects both, through the increase of the carrier density and the tensile strain, Ge incorporation allows addressing independently the lattice deformation influence on superconductivity. To estimate the lattice parameter modulation with B and Ge, Vegard's law is validated for the ternary $SiGeB$ bulk alloy by Density Functional Theory calculations. Its validity is furthermore confirmed experimentally by X-Ray Diffraction. We highlight a global linear dependence of $T_c$ vs. lattice parameter, common for both $Si:B$ and $Si_{1-x}Ge_{x}:B$, with $\delta T_c/T_c \sim 50\,\%$ for $\delta a/a \sim 1\,\%$.

Superconducting boron doped silicon is a promising material for integrated silicon quantum devices. In particular, its low electronic density and moderate disorder make it a suitable candidate for the fabrication of large inductances with low losses at microwave frequencies. Here, we study experimentally the electrodynamics of superconducting silicon thin layers patterned in coplanar waveguide resonators, targeting three key properties: kinetic inductance, internal losses, and the variation of these quantities with the read-out power. We report the first observation in a doped semiconductor of microwave resonances with internal quality factors of a few thousand. As expected in the BCS framework, superconducting silicon presents a large sheet kinetic inductance, in the 50-500 pH range comparable to strongly disordered superconductors, whose temperature dependence is well described by Mattis-Bardeen theory. We find, though, an unexpectedly strong non-linearity of the complex surface impedance which cannot be explained either as a non-linearity induced by depairing or as quasiparticle heating.

In weakly spin-orbit coupled materials, the spin-selective nature of recombination can give rise to large magnetic-field effects, e.g. on the electro-luminescence of molecular semiconductors. Although silicon has weak spin-orbit coupling, observing spin-dependent recombination through magneto-electroluminescence is challenging: silicon's indirect band-gap causes an inefficient emission and it is difficult to separate spin-dependent phenomena from classical magneto-resistance effects. Here we overcome these challenges and measure magneto-electroluminescence in silicon light-emitting diodes fabricated via gas immersion laser doping. These devices allow us to achieve efficient emission while retaining a well-defined geometry, thus suppressing classical magnetoresistance effects to a few percent. We find that electroluminescence can be enhanced by up to 300% near room temperature in a seven Tesla magnetic field, showing that the control of the spin degree of freedom can have a strong impact on the efficiency of silicon LEDs.

We have realized laser-doped all-silicon superconducting (S)/normal metal (N) bilayers of tunable thickness and dopant concentration. We observed a strong reduction of the bilayers' critical temperature when increasing the normal metal thickness, a signature of the highly transparent S/N interface associated to the epitaxial sharp laser doping profile. We extracted the interface resistance by fitting with the linearized Usadel equations, demonstrating a reduction of 1 order of magnitude from previous superconductor/doped Si interfaces. In this well-controlled crystalline system we exploited the low-resistance S/N interfaces to elaborate all-silicon lateral SNS junctions with long-range proximity effect. Their dc transport properties, such as the critical and retrapping currents, could be well understood in the diffusive regime. Furthermore, this work led to the estimation of important parameters in ultradoped superconducting Si, such as the Fermi velocity, the coherence length, or the electron-phonon coupling constant, fundamental to conceive all-silicon superconducting electronics.

We have realised laser-doped all-silicon superconducting (S)/ normal metal (N) bilayers of tunable thickness and dopant concentration. We observed a strong reduction of the bilayers critical temperature when increasing the normal metal thickness, a signature of the highly transparent S/N interface associated to the epitaxial sharp laser doping profile. We extracted the interface resistance by fitting with the linearised Usadel equations, demonstrating a reduction of one order of magnitude from previous superconductor/doped Si interfaces. In this well controlled crystalline system we exploited the low resistance S/N interfaces to elaborate all-silicon lateral SNS Josephson junctions with long range proximity effect. Their dc transport properties, such as the critical and retrapping currents, could be well understood in the diffusive regime. Furthermore, this work lead to the estimation of important parameters in ultra-doped superconducting Si, such as the Fermi velocity, the coherence length, or the electron-phonon coupling constant, fundamental to conceive an all-silicon superconducting electronics.

We have studied a Superconducting Quantum Interference Device (SQUID) made from a single layer thin film of superconducting silicon. The superconducting layer is obtained by heavily doping a silicon wafer with boron atoms using the gas immersion laser doping technique. The SQUID is composed of two nano-bridges (Dayem bridges) in a loop and shows magnetic flux modulation at low temperature and low magnetic field. The overall behavior shows very good agreement with numerical simulations based on the Ginzburg-Landau equations.

We achieved ohmic contacts down to 5 K on standard n-doped Ge samples by creating a strongly doped thin Ge layer between the metallic contacts and the Ge substrate. Thanks to the laser doping technique used, Gas Immersion Laser Doping, we could attain extremely large doping levels above the solubility limit, and thus reduce the metal/doped Ge contact resistance. We tested independently the influence of the doping concentration and doped layer thickness, and showed that the ohmic contact improves when increasing the doping level and is not affected when changing the doped thickness. Furthermore, we characterised the doped Ge/Ge contact, showing that at high doping its contact resistance is the dominant contribution to the total contact resistance.

We report on the superconducting properties of heavily doped silicon epilayers obtained by the implantation of B atoms in silicon wafers and subsequent laser annealing (pulsed laser induced epitaxy). A critical temperature ∼250 mK has been obtained for samples with a boron concentration (cB) ranging from 2 to 10 at.%, which were checked by atom probe tomography to be free of any significant boron clustering. The standard dopant implantation technique is therefore an alternative (with respect to gas immersion laser doping) process to induce superconductivity in boron-doped silicon. Superconductivity was not observed with any of the other implanted dopants (P, As, Al) with similar concentrations down to 50 mK.

We report on the superconducting properties of a series of heavily doped Si:B epilayers grown by gas immersion laser doping with boron content (nB) ranging from ∼3 × 1020 cm−3 to ∼6 × 1021cm−3 and thickness (d) varying between ∼20 nm and ∼210 nm. We show that superconductivity is only observed for nB values exceeding a threshold value (nc,S ) which scales as nc,S ∝ 1/d. The critical temperature (Tc) then rapidly increases with nB, largely exceeding the theoretical values which can be estimated by introducing the electron-phonon coupling constant (λe-ph) deduced from ab initio calculations into the McMillan equation. Surprisingly Tc(nB,d) is fully determined by the boron dose (nB × d) and can be well approximated by a simple Tc(nB,d) ≈ Tc,0[1 − A/(nB.d)] law, with Tc,0 ∼ 750 mK and A ∼ 8(±1) × 1015 cm−2.

We have conceived and fabricated Superconductor/Normal metal/Superconductor Josephson junctions made entirely of boron doped Silicon. We have used Gas Immersion Laser Doping to fabricate SN bilayers with good ohmic interfaces and well controlled concentration and doping depth. Standard fabrication processes, optimised for silicon, were employed to nanostructure the bilayers without affecting their transport properties. The junctions thus fabricated are proximity superconducting and show well understood I-V characteristics. This research opens the road to all-silicon, non-dissipative, Josephson Field Effect Transistors. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Superconducting boron-doped silicon films prepared by gas immersion laser doping (GILD) technique are analyzed by atom probe tomography. The resulting three-dimensional chemical composition reveals that boron atoms are incorporated into crystalline silicon in the atomic percent concentration range, well above their solubility limit, without creating clusters or precipitates at the atomic scale. The boron spatial distribution is found to be compatible with local density of states measurements performed by scanning tunneling spectroscopy. These results combined with the observations of very low impurity level and of a sharp two-dimensional interface between doped and undoped regions show that the Si:B material obtained by GILD is a well-defined random substitutional alloy endowed with promising superconducting properties.

We have probed the dopant activity of silicon B-doped by Gas Immersion Laser Doping (GILD). Here, we report on the comparison of optical, electrical and structural properties of Si: B, over a wide concentration range, up to 1.5 x 10(21) cm(-3) by steps of 1.5 x 10(19) cm(-3). Data obtained by reflectance FTIR spectroscopy are used within a Drude model to extract concentration, thickness and mobility. Resulting carrier concentration and conductivity are checked with 4-point probe electrical and X-ray diffraction measurements. FTIR proved to be very sensitive to the dopant distribution inside the layer, despite its thinness. It clearly reveals a moderate dopant accumulation at the interfaces. (C) 2011 Elsevier B. V. All rights reserved.

We report on the structural analysis of Si1-xGex pseudomorphic layers synthesized by pulsed laser induced epitaxy (PLIE) using a nanosecond excimer laser. We focus here on the local determination of strain and related Ge concentration. First, a Ge amorphous layer is predeposited on a Si substrate. Successive laser pulses induce the incorporation of Ge atoms in the molten substrate layer and lead to the synthesis of a graded Si1-xGex alloy over a depth which depends on the laser fluence. The Si1-xGex layers are coherently strained and free of defects. The in-depth Ge concentration distribution is investigated by RBS and HAADF STEM. The strain fields are specifically explored using the new dark-field electron holography (Holodark) technique, offering mapping of the full strain tensor in two dimensions with a high precision. Independently determined strain and Ge concentration distributions over a distance of 150 nm from the surface are found to be well consistent. An unexpected but reproducible depletion of Ge is evidenced inside the SiGe layer. This feature is shown to be related to the shape of the temporal characteristics of laser pulses. In particular, the second contribution, which occurs 32 ns later, is involved in a two-stage solidification process. (C) 2011 Elsevier B. V. All rights reserved.

Single-shot Excimer Laser Annealing (ELA) was performed onto Si surface that was previously B+ implanted with or without Ge+ pre-amorphization. As a result, p+ type USJ (Ultra-Shallow Junction) has been formed. In process analysis, using Infrared Spectroscopic Ellipsometry (IR-SE) has been performed and compared with conventional 4-point probe method. Also, the corresponding crystallinity for the USJ of Si surface has been studied using Ultraviolet-Visible (UV-Vis) Spectroscopic Ellipsometry. In the case of pre-amorphization by Ge+ implantation, the laser energy density threshold required for melting the surface, and therefore for electrical activation, decreased drastically because of the difference in the thermodynamic properties of the amorphized Si. Estimation of the junction depth shows a shallower junction when using UV-SE, as compared to IR-SE. This can be explained by the fact that, in the UV range, the crystallinity of the top layer is predominant while IR-SE is more sensitive to dopant activation. This efficient single-shot ELA is a candidate for the USJ formation for sub-0.1 μm CMOS transistors. The effective method for investigating the activation state related to the crystallinity by using UV-SE and IR-SE is expected to apply as a non-contact analytical tool for USJ formation.

We report on a detailed analysis of the superconducting properties of boron-doped silicon films grown along the 001 direction by gas immersion laser doping. The doping concentration c(B) has been varied up to similar to 10 at. % by increasing the number of laser shots to 500. No superconductivity could be observed down to 40 mK for doping level below similar to 2 at. %. The critical temperature T(c) then increased steeply to reach similar to 0.6 K for c(B) similar to 8 at. %. No hysteresis was found for the transitions in magnetic field, which is characteristic of a type II superconductor. The corresponding upper critical field mu(o)H(c2) (0) was on the order of 1000 G, much smaller than the value previously reported by Bustarret et al. [E. Bustarret et al., Nature (London) 444, 465 (2006)].