This work analyzes how reliably scanning tunneling microscopy can be used to infer the positions of buried dopants in silicon. It identifies key uncertainty sources that must be controlled before STM imaging can serve as a robust metrology tool.
Keywords: phosphorus dopants in silicon, silicon dopants
Main result: STM-based reconstruction of buried dopant positions in silicon is more uncertain than often assumed. Tip orbital model, dangling bonds, and basis choice can all materially affect the inferred dopant coordinates.