Drawing the geometry of 3d transition metal-boron pairs in silicon from electron emission channeling experiments

Although the formation of transition metal-boron pairs is currently well established in silicon processing, the geometry of these complexes is still not completely understood. We investigated the lattice location of the transition metals manganese, iron, cobalt and nickel in n- and p+-type silicon by means of electron emission channeling. For manganese, iron and cobalt, we observed an increase of sites near the ideal tetrahedral interstitial position by changing the doping from n- to p+-type Si. Such increase was not observed for Ni. We ascribe this increase to the formation of pairs with boron, driven by Coulomb interactions, since the majority of iron, manganese and cobalt is positively charged in p+-type silicon while Ni is neutral. We propose that breathing mode relaxation around the boron ion within the pair causes the observed displacement from the ideal tetrahedral interstitial site. We discuss the application of the emission channeling technique in this system and, in particular, how it provides insight on the geometry of such pairs.