The effect of surface non-radiative recombination upon the kinetics and total yields of the interband photoluminescence of crystalline wafers, excited at room temperature by short laser pulses, was studied. Numerical simulations showed that a correlation between photoluminescence quenching and surface defect-density existed even at high excitation levels; in spite of Auger recombination in the bulk. The quantum yield of the photoluminescence attained several percent for wafers with low bulk and surface-defect concentrations. The calculations were confirmed by an experimental correlation between the photoluminescence quenching and the density of states at the Si/SiO2 interface which was deduced from capacitance-voltage measurements. Characterization of the interface states of Si surfaces, by using the pulsed photoluminescence method, could be carried out for defect densities ranging from 108 to 1014/cm2 at room temperature.

Quantitative Analysis of Room-Temperature Photoluminescence of c-Si Wafers Excited by Short Laser Pulses. V.J.Timoshenko, A.B.Petrenko, M.N.Stolyarov, T.Dittrich, W.Fuessel, J.Rappich: Journal of Applied Physics, 1999, 85[8], 4171-5