The influence of ion-implantation damage on hydrogen-induced ion-cut

Hydrogen ion-implantation in Si has been shown to be an effective means of cleaving thin layer of Si from its parent wafer. This process has been called smart-cut (TM), ion-cut, and hydrogen-slicing by various authors. Qualitatively it is known that implanted hydrogen in Si evolves under heating to form bubbles with high internal pressure, which then drives the cleavage process. The general belief has been that the bubbles, which induced the cleavage, occur at the peak in the H-implantation concentration profile. However, our recent experiments have shown that H bubble nucleation and the ultimate cleavage location in Si is controlled by the lattice damage that is generated by the H-implantation process. The stress and strain field in the proton-implantation-induced damage region of the silicon crystal is proposed to explain the observed results. (C) 2001 Published by Elsevier Science B.V.