(Invited) The Impact of Oxide Precipitates on Minority Carrier Lifetime in Czochralski Silicon

A conflict between previous and recently published data on the two‐stage light‐induced degradation (LID) of carrier lifetime in boron‐doped oxygen‐containing crystalline silicon is addressed. The previous experiments showed the activation of two boron–oxygen recombination centers with strongly differing recombination properties for the fast and slow stages of LID, whereas more recent studies found only a single center for both stages. To resolve this controversy, the historic silicon samples of these previous examinations are re‐examined in this study after more than one decade. It is found that, in the historic samples, the fast stage can be either described by two different centers or a mixture of the two, depending on the duration of previous dark annealing. A possible solution is suggested based on the involvement of different activating impurities in the boron–oxygen defect. In dark‐annealed samples, the defect consisting of boron, oxygen, and the activation impurity is present in two latent configurations, which reconfigure during LID at a fast and a slow stage. In the examined historic silicon samples, which did not undergo a gettering pretreatment, a significant concentration of an additional boron–oxygen defect with a different kind of activating impurity attached exists. The historic and modern results are thus reconciled.

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Fast and Slow Stages of Lifetime Degradation by Boron–Oxygen Centers in Crystalline Silicon

Schmidt

Bothe

Voronkov³

et al. 2019

Physica Status Solidi (b)

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Modulating the extent of fast and slow boron-oxygen related degradation in Czochralski silicon by thermal annealing: Evidence of a single defect

Kim

Abbott

Nampalli

et al. 2017

Journal of Applied Physics

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The fast and slow boron-oxygen related degradation in p-type Czochralski silicon is often attributed to two separate defects due to the different time constants and the determination of different capture cross section ratios (k). However, a recent study using high lifetime samples demonstrated identical recombination properties for the fast and slow degradation and proposed an alternative hypothesis that these were in fact due to a single defect. The study presented in this article provides further experimental evidence to support the single defect hypothesis. Thermal annealing after light soaking is used to investigate the behaviour of subsequent boron-oxygen related degradation. Modifying the temperature and duration of dark annealing on pre-degraded samples is observed to alter the fraction of fast and slow degradation during subsequent illumination. Dark annealing at 173 °C for 60 s is shown to result in almost all degradation occurring during the fast time-scale, whereas annealing at 155 °C for 7 h causes all degradation to occur during the slow time-scale. This modulation occurs without changing the total extent of degradation or changing the capture cross-section ratio. The results are consistent with the fast decay being caused by defect formation from immediately available defect precursors after dark annealing, whereas the slow degradation is caused by the slow transformation of another species into the defect precursor species before the more rapid reaction of defect formation can proceed.

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Impact of interstitial iron on the study of meta-stable B-O defects in Czochralski silicon: Further evidence of a single defect

Kim

Chen

Abbott

et al. 2018

Journal of Applied Physics

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We explore the influence of interstitial iron (Fei) on lifetime spectroscopy of boron-oxygen (B-O) related degradation in p-type Czochralski silicon. Theoretical and experimental evidence presented in this study indicate that iron-boron pair (Fe-B) related reactions could have influenced several key experimental results used to derive theories on the fundamental properties of the B-O defect. Firstly, the presence of Fei can account for higher apparent capture cross-section ratios (k) of approximately 100 observed in previous studies during early stages of B-O related degradation. Secondly, the association of Fe-B pairs can explain the initial stage of a two-stage recovery of carrier lifetime with dark annealing after partial degradation. Thirdly, Fei can result in high apparent k values after the permanent deactivation of B-O defects. Subsequently, we show that a single k value can describe the recombination properties associated with B-O defects throughout degradation, that the recovery during dark annealing occurs with a single-stage, and both the fast- and slow-stage B-O related degradation can be permanently deactivated during illuminated annealing. Accounting for the recombination activity of Fei provides further evidence that the B-O defect is a single defect, rather than two separate defects normally attributed to fast-forming recombination centers and slow-forming recombination centers. Implications of this finding for the nature of the B-O defect are also discussed.

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(Invited) The Impact of Oxide Precipitates on Minority Carrier Lifetime in Czochralski Silicon

Cited by 4 publications

References 33 publications

Fast and Slow Stages of Lifetime Degradation by Boron–Oxygen Centers in Crystalline Silicon

Fast and Slow Stages of Lifetime Degradation by Boron–Oxygen Centers in Crystalline Silicon

Modulating the extent of fast and slow boron-oxygen related degradation in Czochralski silicon by thermal annealing: Evidence of a single defect

Impact of interstitial iron on the study of meta-stable B-O defects in Czochralski silicon: Further evidence of a single defect

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