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Schottky barriers formed by depositing Au on n-type Ge have been used to study the antimony-vacancy complex (E center). Both hole and electron transitions have been observed because the formation of an inversion layer at the semiconductor surface enables minority carriers to be injected when the Schottky barrier is forward biased. It is argued that the E center in Ge has three charge states: double negative, single negative, and neutral. The free energy of electron ionization for the double acceptor level of the complex has been found to be ΔG(=/−)=0.294−4.2 kT (eV), where k is Boltzmann’s constant. Consequently, the position of the double acceptor level of the E center {E(=/−)=Ec−ΔG(=/−)} is temperature dependent. In moderately Sb-doped (NSb=1013–1015 cm−3) Ge crystals at equilibrium conditions half-occupancy of the double acceptor state of the Sb-V complex occurs when the Fermi level is at about Ec−0.20 eV. The single acceptor level of the E center is in the lower part of the band gap. The activation en...

Czochralski-grown silicon samples subjected to high temperature–high pressure (HTHP) treatments in the range of 900 °C were irradiated with fast neutrons. Transmission electron microscopy measurements revealed the presence of oxygen precipitates (SiOx) and dislocation loops. The purpose of this work is to investigate the effect of these defects on the annealing behavior of neutron-irradiated induced oxygen-related defects, mainly the VO and the VO2 centers. To this end, infrared spectroscopy measurements were employed to monitor the conversion of the VO center (828 cm−1) to the VO2 center (890 cm−1 band) during isochronal anneals. In the untreated samples this conversion occurs around 300 °C. In our studies, we found that the annealing temperature (Tann) of the VO centers is lower than 300 °C. The value of Tann depends on the particular HTHP pretreatment. Actually, as a result of the precipitation process silicon self-interstitials (SiIs) are emitted and a number of them is bound at the Si/SiOx interface....

Isovalent doping is an important process for the control of point defects in Si. Here, by means of infrared spectroscopy, we investigated the properties of the two main radiation-induced defects in Czochralski-Si (Cz-Si) the oxygen-vacancy (VO) and the carbon-oxygen (CiOi) centres. In particular, we investigated the effect of isovalent doping on the production, the thermal evolution, and the thermal stability of the VO and the CiOi defects. Additionally, we studied the reactions that participate upon annealing and the defects formed as a result of these reactions. Upon annealing VO is converted to VO2 defect although part of the CiOi is converted to CsO2i complexes. Thus, we studied the conversion ratios [VO2]/[VO] and [CsO2i]/[CiOi] with respect to the isovalent dopant. Additionally, the role of carbon in the above processes was discussed. A delay between the temperature characterizing the onset of the VO decay and the temperature characterizing the VO2 growth as well the further growth of VO2 after the complete disappearance of VO indicate that the VO to VO2 conversion is a complex phenomenon with many reaction processes involved. Differences exhibited between the effects of the various dopants on the properties of the two defects were highlighted. The results are discussed in view of density functional theory calculations involving the interaction of isovalent dopants with intrinsic defects, the oxygen and carbon impurities in Si.

We report infrared absorption studies of oxygen-related defects in electron-irradiated Ge-doped Czochralski-Si. Our investigation was mainly focused on the reaction channel leading to the formation of VOn (1≤n≤6) defects. The VOn defects form mainly upon annealing, as a result of the successive aggregation of oxygen atoms in the initial VO defect produced by the irradiation: (VO+Oi→VO2+Oi→VO3+Oi→VO4,…). It was found that the ratio of the conversion of VOn to VOn+1 defects is sensitive to the Ge content of the material. In particular, the ratio of the conversion of the VO to the VO2 defects was found to decrease with the increase in Ge concentration of the samples, although the opposite trend was observed for the VO3 to VO4 conversion. However, the VO2 to VO3 conversion changes only slightly with Ge content, being practically unaffected for Ge concentrations up to 2×1020 cm−3. In the case of VO2 formation, the phenomenon was attributed to the elastic strains induced in the lattice due to the Ge presence wh...

This paper is devoted to the annealing studies of defects produced in carbon-rich Ge-doped Czochralski-grown Si (Cz-Si) by 2 MeV electron irradiation. The annealing temperature of vacancy-oxygen (VO) complexes, carbon interstitial-oxygen interstitial (CiOi), and carbon interstitial-carbon substitutional (CiCs) pairs as well as the formation temperature of vacancy-two oxygen (VO2) complexes are monitored as a function of Ge concentration. It has been established that the annealing of CiOi and CiCs defects remains practically unaffected by the Ge presence, whereas the annealing temperature of VO defects and the formation temperature of VO2 complexes are substantially lowered at Ge concentrations larger than 1×1019 cm−3. The hydrostatic component of elastic strains introduced by Ge atoms in the Si crystal lattice was calculated. It appears to be very small, at least insufficient to exert a pronounced effect upon the annealing behavior of radiation-produced defects. This conclusion is in line with what is obs...

The annealing behavior of the oxygen and carbon impurities in Czochralski grown silicon (Cz-Si) was investigated in electron- and neutron-irradiated materials. The irradiated samples were subjected to isochronal anneals of up to ∼1000 °C, and the evolution of oxygen and carbon concentrations was monitored by means of infrared spectroscopy from the amplitudes of the 1106 and 605 cm−1 bands of the two impurities correspondingly. It was found that the electron irradiation does not affect the temperature of annealing of oxygen, although in the neutron-irradiated samples the oxygen band begins to decay in the spectra at a lower temperature than that in the nonirradiated samples. This behavior could be determined by supersaturation of vacancies mainly liberated from disordered regions in the latter material. This assists the oxygen aggregation process. Regarding carbon evolution, it was found that in the irradiated samples the annealing out of the 605 cm−1 band occurs at a lower temperature than that of the non...