Electrical activation and redistribution of 500 eV boron implants in preamorphized silicon after nonmelt laser annealing at 1150°C and isochronal rapid thermal postannealing are reported. Under the thermal conditions used for a nonmelt laser at 1150°C, a substantial residue of end-of-range defects remained after one laser scan but these were mainly dissolved within ten scans. The authors find dramatic boron deactivation and transient enhanced diffusion after postannealing the one-scan samples, but very little in the five-and ten-scan samples. The results show that end-of-range defect removal during nonmelt laser annealing is an achievable method for the stabilization of highly activated boron profiles in preamorphized silicon. © 2006 American Institute of Physics. ͓DOI: 10.1063/1.2385215͔The continued downscaling of complementary metaloxide-semiconductor devices requires ultrashallow and abrupt source/drain extension regions with a low sheet resistance.1 Among the other processes nonmelt laser annealing has gained attention as a means of achieving these requirements by its short process time and high annealing temperature, and hence low thermal budget, resulting in high dopant solubility.2-5 A problem exists with creating highly active profiles when boron is implanted in conjunction with a preamorphizing germanium implant; deactivation occurs during postactivation thermal processes. [6][7][8][9][10][11][12] This deactivation is thought to be driven by the release of silicon interstitials from end-of-range ͑EOR͒ defects that evolve through nonconservative Ostwald ripening during annealing. 13 The interstitials flow towards the surface and decorate the boron profile, producing boron interstitial clusters. [14][15][16][17] In this letter, multiple laser scan annealing at 1150°C followed by isochronal rapid thermal postannealing at lower temperatures is used to investigate the role of end-of-range defects in the redistribution and deactivation of ultrashallow B profiles in preamorphized and nonmelt laser-annealed silicon.N-type ͑100͒ Czochralski-silicon wafers were preamorphized with 5 keV Ge + to a dose of 1 ϫ 10 15 cm −2 producing a surface amorphous layer to a depth of ϳ15 nm. 500 eV B + was implanted into the amorphous layer to a dose of 1 ϫ 10 15 cm −2 . Both implants were made using an Applied Materials Quantum X implanter. The wafers were exposed to a scanning diode laser source operated under nonmelting conditions, which was used to anneal three strips across the wafers, corresponding to one, five, or ten scans at a temperature of 1150°C. By using multiple laser scans to anneal the wafer, it allows a study of defect evolution as a function of increasing the thermal budget. The amorphous layer regrew by solid phase epitaxial regrowth during the annealing. Samples were taken from these strips and annealed in dry N 2 for 60 s at temperatures ranging from 700 to 1000°C using a Process Products Corporation rapid thermal annealing system operating with a 50°C/s heating ramp rate. The van der Pauw technique was use...