Solid-Phase Epitaxy

Abstract

We review the field of solid-phase epitaxy (SPE), a crystallization process during which atoms undergo bonding rearrangements that allow them to transfer from a metastable amorphous phase to a crystalline phase using the substrate as a template. This process is commonly used to activate an implanted dopant profile on a low thermal budget, often to concentrations much greater than the dopant's solid solubility limit. Two model systems with great technological importance are used to discuss SPE: silicon and germanium. The well-characterized dependence of SPE on various experimental parameters are considered in detail as well as kinetic models that predict the SPE velocity associated with the c..