Thermal donors and oxygen-related complexes in silicon

✍ Scribed by T. Gregorkiewicz; H.H.P.Th. Bekman

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1989
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 625 KB
• Volume: 4
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0921-5107
• DOI: 10.1016/0921-5107(89)90260-2

✦ Synopsis

For (~ochralski-grown silicon, oxygen is the basic impurity, with its concentration exceeding IO Is cm-~. The complexing of oxygen upon heat treatment presents a long-standing challenge to our understanding of the physics of defects in silicon. In this paper the oxygen-related centres generated by low temperature (T <~ 550 °C) annealing and by combination of electron irradiation and atmealing are reviewed. Within the framework of the review, oxygen-vacancy defects, carbon-oxygen complexes and thermal donors are discussed. Special consideration is given to the possible correlations and reactions between these defects and eventual interference of their generation and tranfformation processes. Here ,special attention is focused on the question of whether a vacancy-oxygen aggregate couM eventually provide a nucleus for a thermal donor centre. It is argued that such a possibili O' seems unfikely in view of the existing experimental evidence. This, however, does not exclude a vacancy-hke core for a thermal donor centre; such a core could sti# be created gradually by the oxygen aggregation itself Subsequently, the possible structures ]br the thermal donor core as well as its Jhrther development mechanism as revealed by recent electron paramagnetic resonance and electron-nuclear double-resonance studies on the Si-NLI() and Si-NL8 deject centres are discussed.