Identification of photoluminescence P line in indium doped silicon as InSi-Sii defect

Abstract

Indium and carbon co-implanted silicon was investigated by low-temperature photoluminescence spectroscopy. A photoluminescence peak in indium doped silicon (P line) was found to depend on the position of a silicon interstitial rich region, the existence of a SiNx:H/SiOx stack and on characteristic illumination and annealing steps. These results led to the conclusion that silicon interstitials are involved in the defect and that hydrogen impacts the defect responsible for the P line. By applying an unique illumination and annealing cycle we were able to link the P line defect with a defect responsible for degradation of charge carrier lifetime in indium as well as boron doped silicon. We deduced a defect model consisting of one acceptor and one silicon interstitial atom denoted by ASi-Sii, which is able to explain the experimental data of the P line as well as the light-induced degradation in indium and boron doped silicon. Using this model we identified the defect responsible for the P line as InSi-Sii in neutral charge state and C2v configuration.

Activation energies of the InSi‐Sii defect transitions obtained by carrier lifetime measurements

“…The basic question is: Is the observed LID phenomenon due to a configuration change of a defect as proposed in Refs. [4,10] or does a long-range migration occur similar to the A Si -Fe i defects at least for one component? One criterion would be, how the annihilation rate of the SRC (transition 7 to 5) depends on the acceptor density.…”

“…In the first A Si -Si i defect model proposed in Ref. [10], the generation of the FRC was an electron capture process. One physical mechanism to release the energy of the electron is by emission of multiple phonons ( [18] and references therein].…”

“…For the case of boron, it was proposed that oxygen trimers [4] or dimers [5] are located in the vicinity of this acceptor atom and are responsible for the LID phenomenon. Considering ab initio simulations of one acceptor and one silicon atom sharing one lattice position in silicon [6][7][8][9], an A Si -Si i defect was proposed as an alternative origin for LID [2] and a defect model was developed [10]. This defect model can also explain the kinetics of a photoluminescence peak in indium doped silicon called P line [10].…”

“…Considering ab initio simulations of one acceptor and one silicon atom sharing one lattice position in silicon [6][7][8][9], an A Si -Si i defect was proposed as an alternative origin for LID [2] and a defect model was developed [10]. This defect model can also explain the kinetics of a photoluminescence peak in indium doped silicon called P line [10]. Existing experimental data with respect to the boron interstitial defect and oxygen clustering during crystal cooling are in agreement with the assumption of an A Si -Si i defect [11].…”

“…2 Defect model 2.1 Level scheme The A Si -Si i defect model, which was developed in Ref. [10], is extended by a third configuration to include a more likely mechanism for the generation of the fast recombination center (see Fig. 1).…”