It was recalled that rapid advances in the semiconductor technology of nano-scale integration, opto-electronics for communication needs, and micro-machines made the susceptibility of semiconductor systems to electronic noise a critical issue. Defects (especially extended) in crystalline structure were known to be sites of intense scattering

and trapping in flows of carriers, and therefore were recognized as strong generators of noise in electronic materials and devices. The study focused on 1/f noise generated by dislocations. Even an extremely low level of this noise was rather disturbing to the operation of many electronic and opto-electronic devices. In the current study a new noise figure of merit was introduced and applied in analyzing the potential use of such materials as Si, Si–Ge, SiC, GaAs, GaN, and AlN. The potential low-noise performance of electronic materials was connected to the presence of extended crystalline defects, dislocations. A model was developed which links the magnitude of the recombination rate at the dislocation with fluctuation of the current, which could be measured by electron-beam-induced-current techniques. This model considers the dynamic change of the dislocation potential for a defect positioned inside an active area of a device, when the external bias changes at a p–n junction, at the gate of a field-effect-transistor or at the cavity of a laser.

Dislocation-Induced Noise in Semiconductors. S.Milshtein: Journal of Physics - Condensed Matter, 2002, 14[48], 13387-95