Activation and electron spin resonance of near-surface implanted bismuth donors in silicon

The bismuth (Bi) substitutional donor in silicon (Si) is an attractive qubit candidate for quantum computing proposals due to its large Hilbert space, clock transitions, and potential to couple to superconducting flux qubits. Single-qubit control, coupling, and readout by surface nanocircuitry requires a Bi depth of ∼20 nm in Si. This can be achieved using ion implantation of ∼25 keV Bi. This work explores the activation properties of Bi implanted at 26 keV with fluences of 1×1014 and 6×1012cm−2 into both crystalline and preamorphized Si. The Bi electrical activation yield was measured over a broad range of annealing conditions using resistivity and Hall effect measurements, enabling optimal annealing strategies to be proposed for the different implant parameters. For the high and low fluences, the maximum Bi activation yields achieved were 64% and 46%, respectively. Above a critical thermal budget, a substantial fraction of Bi forms electrically inactive complexes in the high fluence sample only. The substitutional fraction and diffusion of high fluence Bi was quantified, with diffusion coefficients D0=4.0±0.5 and 7.5±0.5cm2s−1 found for implantation into crystalline and preamorphized Si, respectively, using Rutherford backscattering spectrometry. To demonstrate the successful activation and quantum control of near-surface implanted Bi, the full hyperfine spectrum of these donors is obtained using continuous-wave electron spin resonance at 25 K, supporting the suitability for Bi donor qubits.