Specific features of transmutational doping of 30Si-enriched silicon crystals with phosphorus: Studies by the method of electron spin resonance

Electron spin resonance (ESR) is used to study the neutron transmutation doping of silicon crystals enriched with 30Si isotope: phosphorus donors and radiation defects produced in the course of transmutational doping are observed. The ESR signals related to the phosphorus uncontrolled impurity in 30Si before transmutational doping (the P concentration is ∼1015 cm−3) and phosphorus introduced by neutron irradiation with doses ∼1 × 1019 cm−2 and ∼1 × 1020 cm−2 (the P concentrations are ∼5 × 1016 and ∼7 × 1017 cm−3, respectively) are studied. As a result of drastic narrowing of the phosphorus ESR lines in 30Si, the intensity of lines increased appreciably, which made it possible to measure the phosphorus concentration in the samples with a small volume (down to 10−6 mm−3). The methods for determining the concentration of P donors from hyperfine structure in the ESR spectra of isolated P atoms, exchange-related pairs, and clusters that consist of three, four, and more P donors are developed. In the region of high concentrations of P donors, in which case the hyperfine structure disappears, the concentration of P donors was estimated from the exchange-narrowed ESR line.