The low nitrogen retained dose due to competition from oxygen coimplantation diminishes the efficacy of nitrogen plasma immersion ion implantation in silicon. In this work, we aim at improving the nitrogen retained dose by using ammonia as a precursor. Ammonia is introduced into the nitrogen plasma during plasma immersion ion implantation of silicon to improve the nitrogen reactivity and reduce the competition from oxygen in the residual vacuum. Our,x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy results indicate that the ammonia precursor can indeed improve the N retained dose effectively, and the hydrophilic properties of the surface change with different ammonia to nitrogen ratios. (c) 2005 American Vacuum Society.