Vacancy generation in silicon in the temperature range 100-633 K under electron irradiation.

The processes of radiation defect formation in Si with 1 MeV electron irradiation in the temperature range 100-633 K have been investigated. It is established that the generation efficiency of vacancies λV increases with temperature, then starts to saturate at temperatures of 250 K and finally stays constant at T>300 K. It is shown that at high temperatures, the λV dependence can be caused by the additional scattering of 'hot' interstitial atoms on acoustical and optical phonons, the numbers of which increase with the temperature. An explanation, based on the creation of quasi-molecule of 'hot' interstitial and lattice atoms, is proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]