We present the experimental realization of ordered arrays of hyper-doped silicon nanodisks, which exhibit a localized surface plasmon resonance. The plasmon is widely tunable in a spectral window between 2 and 5 μm by adjusting the free carrier concentration between 1020 and 1021 cm–3. We show that strong infrared light absorption can be achieved with all-silicon plasmonic metasurfaces employing nanostructures with dimensions as low as 100 nm in diameter and 23 nm in height. Our numerical simulations show an excellent agreement with the experimental data and provide physical insights on the impact of the nanostructure shape as well as of near-field effects on the optical properties of the metasurface. Our results open highly promising perspectives for integrated all-silicon-based plasmonic devices for instance for chemical or biological sensing or for thermal imaging.

In this work, a thorough study of the phosphorus (P) heavy doping of thin Silicon-On-Insulator (SOI) layers by UV nanosecond Laser Thermal Annealing (LTA) is presented. The melting regimes and the regrowth processes as well as the redistribution and activation of P in the top-Si amorphized layer were studied as a function of the implant dose and laser annealing conditions. The results highlight the crucial role of the thin crystalline silicon layer preserved after amorphization of the top-Si layer, which provides nucleation seeds for the liquid phase recrystallization. The impact of the implant dose on the recrystallization process is investigated in detail, in terms of melt energy thresholds, crystallographic nature of the resolidified layer, defect formation, surface roughness and hillocks formation at the silicon surface. For all the implanted doses, optimized laser annealing conditions were identified, corresponding to the laser energies just preceding the onset of the full melt. Such optimized layers exhibit perfect crystallinity, negligible P out-diffusion, an almost perfectly flat P depth profile located below the segregation-induced surface pile-up peak and dopant active concentrations well above 1×10 21 cm -3 , close to the highest reported values reported for phosphorus in bulk Si substrates.

Topological insulators (TIs) are known as promising materials for new nanoelectronics and spintronics applications thanks to their unique physical properties. Among these TIs, bismuth antimony alloys (Bi1–x Sb x ) remain the most interesting because their electronic band structure can be controlled by changing the stoichiometry, the thickness, or the temperature. However, integrating these materials on an industrial substrate remains a challenge. Here, we investigate the growth, structural, and electrical properties of BiSb materials epitaxially deposited on industrial GaAs(001) substrates. We report the influence of key growth parameters such as temperature, antimony composition, thickness, and growth rate on the crystal quality. We manage to optimize the growth conditions while keeping the Bi1–x Sb x composition within the TI range. Despite the large lattice mismatch and different crystalline matrices between the deposited material and the substrate, we successfully grow high-quality BiSb(0001) films. For optimized growth conditions, n-type semiconductor behavior of the BiSb layer is demonstrated at temperatures above 100 K. The material band gap calculated from our transport measurements corresponds to that mentioned in the literature. A change of the carrier type from bulk electrons to surface holes is observed when decreasing the temperature below 55 K. Hole mobilities up to 7620 cm2/(V·s) are extracted. This is, to our knowledge, the first demonstration of TI integrated on an industrial substrate keeping its protected surface states.

In this work, we present a comprehensive investigation of impurities contamination in silicon during UV Nanosecond Laser Annealing at high energy density. By investigating in detail the impact of the annealing ambient and of the surface preparation prior to UV-NLA (including the variation of the surface oxide thickness), we show that the observed oxygen penetration originates from the surface oxide layer. It is proposed that, at high energy UV-NLA, the prolonged contact of SiO2 with high temperature liquid Si induces a partial degradation of the SiO2/Si interface, leading to bond breaking and subsequent injection of O atoms into the substrate. A degradation involving less than 5 % of the O atoms contained in the 1 st SiO2 ML is sufficient to account for the measured amount of in-diffused O in all of the analysed samples.