Acceptor deactivation in individual silicon nanowires: From thick to ultrathin

An individual free standing spicular silicon nanowire (NW) fabricated by Ag assisted chemical etching was doped to 10¹⁸ dopants/cm^-3 by boron ion implantation and annealed at 1000°C. The presented NW is around 900 nm in length and consists of two connected parts, a thicker basis with a diameter of about hundred nm and of a thin top part with an average diameter as thin as 16 nm. This NW was analyzed by scanning spreading resistance microscopy (SSRM). The paper demonstrates that SSRM is capable to spatially and electrically resolve such an ultrathin NW with the thinnest part down to 12 nm in diameter. Experimental results show the dependence of the acceptor deactivation on the diameter of the NW cross section. The doping efficiency of the NW dramatically decreases as the diameter is below 25 nm. Deactivation mechanisms are discussed.