The outdiffusion of boron, antimony, and phosphorus from the bare silicon wafer at 1200 °C, especially its dependence upon the annealing atmosphere, has been studied with spreading resistance and secondary ion mass spectroscopy (SIMS). It is found that the boron outdiffusion proceeds when the crystal is annealed in hydrogen, but is completely suppressed in argon even if the doping concentration is as high as 3×1018cm−3and the annealing time is as long as 2 h. The dramatic dependence upon the atmosphere has not been observed for the other impurities and is temporarily related with the desorption process of boron atoms from the surface. ©1996 American Institute of Physics.