Gas immersion laser doping (GILD) is a method of doping a

semiconductor A semiconductor is a material with electrical conductivity between that of a conductor and an insulator. Its conductivity can be modified by adding impurities (" doping") to its crystal structure. When two regions with different doping level ...

material such as

silicon Silicon is a chemical element; it has symbol Si and atomic number 14. It is a hard, brittle crystalline solid with a blue-grey metallic lustre, and is a tetravalent metalloid (sometimes considered a non-metal) and semiconductor. It is a membe ...

. In the case of doping silicon with boron to create a

P-type semiconductor P-type or type P may refer to: P-type * P-type orbit, type of planetary orbit in a binary system * P-type asteroid, type of asteroid * P-type semiconductor * MG P-type, a type of automobile * P-type ATPase, evolutionarily related ion and lipid ...

material, a thin

wafer A wafer is a crisp, often sweet, very thin, flat, light biscuit, often used to decorate ice cream, and also used as a garnish on some sweet dishes. They frequently have a waffle surface pattern but may also be patterned with insignia of the foo ...

of silicon is placed in a containment chamber and is immersed in boron gas. A pulsed laser is directed at the silicon wafer and this results in localised melting and subsequent recrystallisation of the silicon wafer material, allowing boron atoms in the gas to diffuse into the molten sections of the silicon wafer. The result of this process is a silicon wafer with boron impurities, creating a P-type semiconductor.

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Further reading