The electron irradiation of Si at low temperature (~4K) caused the annihilation or separation of the main part of the Frenkel pairs. However the essential part of the pairs survives in the case of proton and α-particle irradiation of p-Si at 80K, because the deep level transient spectroscopy and electron paramagnetic resonance signals which were identified as vacancy¯self-interstitial complexes were detected. This fact allows to study the properties of the pairs and the interaction between pair components (vacancies and interstitials) and impurities. For example, charge carrier injection at 80K induces the decay of the metastable pairs, as a result, reactions between pair components and impurity atoms were observed. It was also argued that the defects introduced in Si by exposure to H plasma at about 230C acted as effective traps for the self-interstitial atoms, and the vacancy-related extended defects (platelets) could play the role of such traps. The formation of the extended traps of the self-interstitial atoms was useful for improvement of radiation resistance of Si devices.

Interactions of Primary Defects with Impurities in Silicon. B.N.Mukashev, K.A.Abdullin, Y.V.Gorelkinskii: Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research B, 2002, 186[1-4], 83-7