UV and visible Raman scattering of ultraheavily Ti implanted Si layers for intermediate band formation

We assess the degree of crystallinity by means of UV and visible Raman scattering measurements of Ti implanted Si layers with very high doses (1015–5 × 1016 cm−2) subsequently annealed by nanosecond pulsed laser melting (PLM). We obtain ultraheavily impurified Si layers with Ti concentrations six orders of magnitude above the solid solubility limit in a layer several tens of nanometers thick. The PLM annealing processes are needed to recover the crystal quality and to keep the high Ti concentration required to form an intermediate band (IB). The UV Raman analysis permits us to evaluate the lattice crystallinity of the different implanted doses probing only the implanted region and points out Ti interstitial location in the host lattice in agreement with theoretical predictions for IB formation. By contrast, visible Raman spectra are only sensitive to the presence of a fully amorphized implanted layer as in the rest of the crystalline layers the probing depth far exceeds the implanted layer thickness and the signal is dominated by the undamaged Si.