Interstitial Fe in Si and its interactions with hydrogen and shallow dopants

Sanati, M.; Szwacki, N. Gonzalez; Estreicher, Stefan K.

doi:10.1103/physrevb.76.125204

Cited by 54 publications

(60 citation statements)

References 109 publications

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“…This finding, however, does not contradict the reported possible Fe-H pairs in the literature, [21][22][23][24] which were shown to anneal out at temperatures above 175 C, 22,23 agreeing with the theoretical calculations of the low binding energy of Fe-H pairs. 24 Estreicher et al 35 conjectured the formation of substitutional iron (Fe s ) in Si via the reaction of interstitial iron (Fe i ) with a pre-existing vacancy. According to Estreicher et al's predictions, Fe s has an acceptor energy level in the upper half of the bandgap.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 74%

“…[13][14][15][16][17] This hypothesis was based on the reports that showed that the recombination activity and the concentration of interstitial iron in silicon were reduced after hydrogen incorporation, via exposure to hydrogen plasma, [18][19][20] hydrogen ion implantation, 21 wet chemical etching, 22 or deposition of PECVD silicon nitride films. 23 While there have been reports of the detection of new defect levels assigned to possible Fe-H complexes, [21][22][23] from theoretical calculations the binding energy of Fe-H pairs was found to be weak, 24 indicating the unlikelihood of the Fe-H pairs withstanding the relatively high temperatures used for firing. Others have suggested that the reduction was due to the accelerated precipitation of iron driven by hydrogenenhanced iron diffusivity.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Gettering of interstitial iron in silicon by plasma-enhanced chemical vapour deposited silicon nitride films

Liu

Sun

Markevich

et al. 2016

Journal of Applied Physics

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It is known that the interstitial iron concentration in silicon is reduced after annealing silicon wafers coated with plasma-enhanced chemical vapour deposited (PECVD) silicon nitride films. The underlying mechanism for the significant iron reduction has remained unclear and is investigated in this work. Secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) depth profiling of iron is performed on annealed iron-contaminated single-crystalline silicon wafers passivated with PECVD silicon nitride films. SIMS measurements reveal a high concentration of iron uniformly distributed in the annealed silicon nitride films. This accumulation of iron in the silicon nitride film matches the interstitial iron loss in the silicon bulk. This finding conclusively shows that the interstitial iron is gettered by the silicon nitride films during annealing over a wide temperature range from 250 °C to 900 °C, via a segregation gettering effect. Further experimental evidence is presented to support this finding. Deep-level transient spectroscopy analysis shows that no new electrically active defects are formed in the silicon bulk after annealing iron-containing silicon with silicon nitride films, confirming that the interstitial iron loss is not due to a change in the chemical structure of iron related defects in the silicon bulk. In addition, once the annealed silicon nitride films are removed, subsequent high temperature processes do not result in any reappearance of iron. Finally, the experimentally measured iron decay kinetics are shown to agree with a model of iron diffusion to the surface gettering sites, indicating a diffusion-limited iron gettering process for temperatures below 700 °C. The gettering process is found to become reaction-limited at higher temperatures.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 74%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Gettering of interstitial iron in silicon by plasma-enhanced chemical vapour deposited silicon nitride films

Liu

Sun

Markevich

et al. 2016

Journal of Applied Physics

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“…B − , is a well-known phenomenon [1][2][3]22,23,40 . In the next subsections we discuss each type of observed lattice site that we unambiguously identified, comparing with ab initio calculations 21,40,41 and Mössbauer spectroscopy [42][43][44][45] studies from literature.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Influence of n+ and p+ doping on the lattice sites of implanted Fe in Si

Silva

Wahl

Correia

et al. 2013

Journal of Applied Physics

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We report on the lattice location of implanted 59 Fe in n + -and p + -type Si by means of emission channeling. We found clear evidence that the preferred lattice location of Fe changes with the doping of the material. While in n + -type Si Fe prefers displaced bond-centered (BC) sites for annealing temperatures up to 600 • C, changing to ideal substitutional sites above 700 • C, in p + -type Si Fe prefers to be in displaced tetrahedral interstitial positions after all annealing steps. The dominant lattice sites of Fe in n + -type Si therefore seem to be well characterized for all annealing temperatures by the incorporation of Fe into vacancy-related complexes, either into single vacancies which leads to Fe on ideal substitutional sites, or multiple vacancies, which leads to its incorporation near BC sites. In contrast, in p + -type Si the major fraction of Fe is clearly interstitial (near-T or ideal T) for all annealing temperatures. The formation and possible lattice sites of Fe in FeB pairs in p + -Si are discussed. We also address the relevance of our findings for the understanding of the gettering effects caused by radiation damage or P-diffusion, the latter involving n + -doped regions.

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“…The Coulomb repulsion energy between Fe − i and B − s is about 0.52 eV 2 , which is somewhat smaller than the reported diffusion barrier energy (0.67 eV) for Fe + i in silicon. 2,6 However, the migration barrier from the 1 st to 2 nd neighbors of B is (0.9-1.0) eV and (0.78-0.90) eV for Fe 0 i and Fe + i , respectively. 18,26 Even though there is no data available about the migration energy for Fe − i , it should be larger than that of Fe 0 i , due to its larger radius.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…FeB is a strong recombination center with a donor level 0.1 eV above the valence band edge E v, and a deep acceptor level (0.26 ± 0.03) eV below the conduction band edge E c . 2,6,7 The latter state is the dominant recombination center. 8,9 Since Fe i and FeB have different carrier recombination properties, either the dissociation or the association of FeB can be monitored by lifetime measurements.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Iron-boron pair dissociation in silicon under strong illumination

Zhu

Yang

et al. 2013

AIP Advances

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The dissociation of iron-boron pairs (FeB) in Czochralski silicon under strong illumination was investigated. It is found that the dissociation process shows a double exponential dependence on time. The first fast process is suggested to be caused by a positive Fe in FeB capturing two electrons and diffusion triggered by the electron-phonon interactions, while the second slow one would involve the capturing of one electron followed by temperature dependent dissociation with an activation energy of (0.21 ± 0.03) eV. The results are important for understanding and controlling the behavior of FeB in concentrator solar cells

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Interstitial Fe in Si and its interactions with hydrogen and shallow dopants

Cited by 54 publications

References 109 publications

Gettering of interstitial iron in silicon by plasma-enhanced chemical vapour deposited silicon nitride films

Gettering of interstitial iron in silicon by plasma-enhanced chemical vapour deposited silicon nitride films

Influence of n+ and p+ doping on the lattice sites of implanted Fe in Si

Iron-boron pair dissociation in silicon under strong illumination

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