Incorporation of gold into silicon by thin film deposition and pulsed laser melting

We report on the incorporation of gold into silicon at a peak concentration of 1.9 × 1020 at./cm3, four orders of magnitude above the equilibrium solubility limit, using pulsed laser melting of a thin film deposited on the silicon surface. We vary the film thickness and laser process parameters (fluence, number of shots) to quantify the range of concentrations that can be achieved. Our approach achieves gold concentrations comparable to those achieved with ion implantation followed by pulsed laser melting, in a layer with high crystalline quality. This approach offers an attractive alternative to ion implantation for forming high quality, high concentration layers of transition metals like gold in silicon.