Formation and Properties of Copper Silicide Precipitates in Silicon

Seibt, Michael; Griess, M.; Istratov, A. A.; Hedemann, H.; Sattler, Andreas; Schr??ter, W.

doi:10.1002/(sici)1521-396x(199803)166:1<171::aid-pssa171>3.3.co;2-u

Cited by 13 publications

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“…27 Previous studies that have attempted to determine the chemical state of Cu-rich clusters in Si are largely restricted to TEM-based energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (EDX) and diffraction analyses of copper precipitates in samples prepared by in-diffusion of unusually high Cu concentrations, or grown from a heavily Cu-contaminated melt. [28][29][30][31][32][33] In these studies, a species of copper silicide, η-Cu 3 Si, is the predominantly observed phase.…”

Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 89%

Analysis of copper-rich precipitates in silicon: Chemical state, gettering, and impact on multicrystalline silicon solar cell material

Buonassisi

Marcus

Istratov

et al. 2005

Journal of Applied Physics

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In this study, synchrotron-based x-ray absorption microspectroscopy (µ-XAS) is applied to identifying the chemical states of copper-rich clusters within a variety of silicon materials, including as-grown cast multicrystalline silicon solar cell material with high oxygen concentration and other silicon materials with varying degrees of oxygen concentration and copper contamination pathways. In all samples, copper silicide (Cu 3 Si) is the only phase of copper identified. It is noted from thermodynamic considerations that unlike certain metal species, copper tends to form a silicide and not an oxidized compound because of the strong silicon-oxygen bonding energy; consequently the likelihood of encountering an oxidized copper particle in silicon is small, in agreement with experimental data. In light of these results, the effectiveness of aluminum gettering for the removal of copper from bulk silicon is quantified via x-ray fluorescence microscopy (µ-XRF), and a segregation coefficient is determined from experimental data to be at least (1-2)×10 3 . Additionally, µ-XAS data directly demonstrates that the segregation mechanism of Cu in Al is the higher solubility of Cu in the liquid phase. In light of these results, possible limitations for the complete removal of Cu from bulk mcSi are discussed.

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Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 89%

Analysis of copper-rich precipitates in silicon: Chemical state, gettering, and impact on multicrystalline silicon solar cell material

Buonassisi

Marcus

Istratov

et al. 2005

Journal of Applied Physics

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“…1, is consistent with existing models [8,38] describing nano-precipitate colony formation via repeated Cu 3 Si nucleation on climbing dislocations. However, compared with the large colonies shown in Fig.…”

Section: Precipitates Formed As Results Of Lower-temperature Annealingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For multicrystalline silicon (mc-Si), material out of which over 50% of solar cells worldwide are made, metal precipitation reactions are further complicated by the inhomogeneous presence of structural defects and the possible presence of up to 15 metallic impurity species in concentrations as high as 10 12 cm À3 or greater [3][4][5]. It is also commonly accepted as well that interstitially dissolved 3d transition metals in silicon (e.g., iron or copper) can, upon supersaturation, precipitate into their solid equilibrium metal silicide phase (e.g., FeSi 2 [6] or Cu 3 Si [7][8][9]). It is also fairly well established that the presence of precipitates of one metal species may aid the precipitation of another (see [10] and references therein), e.g., by providing energetically favorable nucleation sites via lattice strain or local native point defect compensation.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Transition metal co-precipitation mechanisms in silicon

et al. 2007

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“…Such extended defects introduce a continuous band of energy states in the upper half of the bandgap, from E c À 0:15 eV to E c À ð0:4…0:5Þ eV 37,38 with an estimated electron capture cross-section r n ¼ 3 Â 10 À16 cm 2 . 39 Macdonald et al showed through LS methods that the impact of this distributed energy band can be approximated via two non-interacting SRH defects with energy levels located at E c À 0:15 eV and E c À 0:58 eV, which approximately correspond to the extremes of the aforementioned energy band.…”

Section: Comparison With Literature Data and Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Recombination activity of light-activated copper defects in p-type silicon studied by injection- and temperature-dependent lifetime spectroscopy

Inglese

Lindroos

Vahlman

et al. 2016

Journal of Applied Physics

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The presence of copper contamination is known to cause strong light-induced degradation (Cu-LID) in silicon. In this paper, we parametrize the recombination activity of light-activated copper defects in terms of Shockley—Read—Hall recombination statistics through injection- and temperature dependent lifetime spectroscopy (TDLS) performed on deliberately contaminated float zone silicon wafers. We obtain an accurate fit of the experimental data via two non-interacting energy levels, i.e., a deep recombination center featuring an energy level at Ec−Et=0.48−0.62 eV with a moderate donor-like capture asymmetry (k=1.7−2.6) and an additional shallow energy state located at Ec−Et=0.1−0.2 eV, which mostly affects the carrier lifetime only at high-injection conditions. Besides confirming these defect parameters, TDLS measurements also indicate a power-law temperature dependence of the capture cross sections associated with the deep energy state. Eventually, we compare these results with the available literature data, and we find that the formation of copper precipitates is the probable root cause behind Cu-LID.

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Formation and Properties of Copper Silicide Precipitates in Silicon

Cited by 13 publications

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Analysis of copper-rich precipitates in silicon: Chemical state, gettering, and impact on multicrystalline silicon solar cell material

Analysis of copper-rich precipitates in silicon: Chemical state, gettering, and impact on multicrystalline silicon solar cell material

Transition metal co-precipitation mechanisms in silicon

Recombination activity of light-activated copper defects in p-type silicon studied by injection- and temperature-dependent lifetime spectroscopy

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