Incoherent annealing of implanted layers in GaAs

Incoherent light from filament lamps focused by elliptical mirrors has been used to activate implanted layers in GaAs. 4 × 10
¹⁴
Si
⁺
cm
^-2
and 2 × 10
¹⁴
Zn
⁺
cm
^-2
implants were annealed with Si
3
N
4
deposited by CVD at 400°C providing a surface protective layer. By taking advantage of the focusing properties of elliptical mirrors, most of the emitted light could be concentrated onto the GaAs to give annealing times × 1 sec. Differential Hall measurements show peak carrier concentrations of 6.5 × 10
¹⁸
cm
^-3
and 50% activation for the n+ layers. The Zn implants were completely activated and doped to ∼ 2 × 10
¹⁹
cm
^-3
. These results, together with the short annealing times, suggest the present approach to be an attractive alternative to both laser and conventional thermal annealing.