It was noted that the recombination rate of minority charge carriers at dislocations depended strongly upon dislocation decoration by transition metal impurities. A model was presented which permitted a quantitative description to be given of the recombination of minority carriers at decorated dislocations. It assumed that shallow dislocation bands (induced by the strain field) and deep electronic levels (caused by impurity atoms, which had segregated at the dislocation, or by core defects) could exchange electrons and holes. As a result, the recombination of carriers which were captured at dislocation bands could be markedly enhanced by the presence of even small concentrations of impurity atoms at the dislocation core. The model offered not only an explanation of experimentally observed dependences of the recombination rate upon temperature and excitation level, but also permitted the estimation of the concentrations of deep-level impurities at dislocations.

Recombination Activity of Contaminated Dislocations in Silicon: a Model Describing Electron Beam-Induced Current Contrast Behavior. V.Kveder, M.Kittler, W.Schröter: Physical Review B, 2001, 63[11], 115208 (11pp)