INJECTION ANNEALING OF THE SELF DI-INTERSTITIAL – OXYGEN COMPLEX IN p-TYPE SILICON

Abstract

With the use of deep level transient spectroscopy (DLTS) the effect of injection of minority charge carriers (electrons) on an annealing rate of self di-interstitial – oxygen (I2O) complex in silicon has been studied. The complex has been formed by irradiation of epitaxial boron-doped n+–p diode structures with alpha-particles at room temperature. It has been shown that the disappearance of this complex at room temperature begins at a direct current density of ~1.5 A/cm2. This characteristic current density has been found for 10 W·cm p-type silicon when the total radiation defect density was less than 15 % of the initial boron concentration, a divalent hole trap with energy levels of Ev + 0.43 eV and Ev + 0.54 eV has been found to appear as a result of recombination-enhanced annealing of the I2O. When the I2O complex is annealed thermally, the concurrent appearance of an electron trap with an energy level of Ec – 0.35 eV has been observed. It has been shown that the divalent hole trap represents a metastable configuration (BH-configuration) of the bistable defect, whereas the electron trap is stab le in the p-Si configuration (ME-configuration). From the comparison of DLTS signals related to different defect configurations it is found that the ME-configuration of this bistable defect can be characterized as a center with negative correlation energy. It has been shown that the injection-stimulated processes make it very difficult to obtain reliable data on the formation kinetics of the bistable defect in the BH-configuration when studying the thermal annealing of the I2O complex.