Nitrogen-Doped Silicon: Mechanical, Transport and Electrical Properties

Abstract

A novel dislocation locking technique is used to study the behaviour of nitrogen in float-zone silicon (FZ-Si). Specimens containing well-defined arrays of dislocation half-loops are subjected to isothermal anneals of controlled duration, during which nitrogen diffuses to the dislocations. The stress required to bring about dislocation motion is then measured. From measuring this unlocking stress as a function of annealing time and temperature it is possible to deduce information on nitrogen transport and nitrogen-dislocation interactions. In this paper, the results obtained by using the dislocation locking technique are reviewed. Furthermore, deep-level transient spectroscopy (DLTS) and high-resolution DLTS (HR-DLTS) are applied to nitrogen-doped silicon. A deep-level with an emission enthalpy of approximately 0.50eV and a concentration of order 10 11 cm -3

Influence of Annealing and Bulk Hydrogenation on Lifetime-Limiting Defects in Nitrogen-Doped Floating Zone Silicon

“…Despite its many benefits, nitrogen also forms electrically active defects situated near the conduction band in FZ silicon [17]. Upon subsequent annealing, these defects disappear and deeper defects are created [17]- [21]. The carrier lifetime (and hence solar cell efficiency) will potentially be affected by the presence of nitrogen-related defects.…”