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Hyperdoped black silicon fabricated with femtosecond laser irradiation has attracted interest for applications in infrared photodetectors and intermediate band photovoltaics due to its sub-bandgap optical absorptance and light-trapping surface. However, hyperdoped black silicon typically has an amorphous and polyphasic polycrystalline surface that can interfere with carrier transport, electrical rectification, and intermediate band formation. Past studies have used thermal annealing to obtain high crystallinity in hyperdoped black silicon, but thermal annealing causes a deactivation of the sub-bandgap optical absorptance. In this study, nanosecond laser annealing is used to obtain high crystallinity and remove pressure-induced phases in hyperdoped black silicon while maintaining high sub-bandgap optical absorptance and a light-trapping surface morphology. Furthermore, it is shown that nanosecond laser annealing reactivates the sub-bandgap optical absorptance of hyperdoped black silicon after deactivation by thermal annealing. Thermal annealing and nanosecond laser annealing can be combined in sequence to fabricate hyperdoped black silicon that simultaneously shows high crystallinity, high above-bandgap and sub-bandgap absorptance, and a rectifying electrical homojunction. Such nanosecond laser annealing could potentially be applied to non-equilibrium material systems beyond hyperdoped black silicon.

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The germanium-tin (Ge1−xSnx) material system is expected to be a direct bandgap group IV semiconductor at a Sn content of 6.5−11 at. %. Such Sn concentrations can be realized by non-equilibrium deposition techniques such as molecular beam epitaxy or chemical vapour deposition. In this report, the combination of ion implantation and pulsed laser melting is demonstrated to be an alternative promising method to produce a highly Sn concentrated alloy with a good crystal quality. The structural properties of the alloys such as soluble Sn concentration, strain distribution, and crystal quality have been characterized by Rutherford backscattering spectrometry, Raman spectroscopy, x ray diffraction, and transmission electron microscopy. It is shown that it is possible to produce a high quality alloy with up to 6.2 at. %Sn. The optical properties and electronic band structure have been studied by spectroscopic ellipsometry. The introduction of substitutional Sn into Ge is shown to either induce a splitting between light and heavy hole subbands or lower the conduction band at the Γ valley. Limitations and possible solutions to introducing higher Sn content into Ge that is sufficient for a direct bandgap transition are also discussed.

High level active n + doping of strained germanium through co-implantation and nanosecond pulsed laser melting.