Electrically active defects induced by neutron irradiation in n-type Czochralski-grown Si crystals were studied by means of capacitance transient techniques. These neutron-induced defects were compared with those created by electron irradiation and self-ion implantation. Four electron traps with the activation energies for electron emission of 0.12, 0.16, 0.24 and 0.42eV were observed after neutron irradiation in phosphorous-doped Czochralski Si crystals. It was inferred that the E(0.12) and E(0.16) traps were related to the single-acceptor states of the Si self-interstitial–O dimer complex (IO2i) and the vacancy–O pair (VO), respectively. The E(0.24) trap was associated with the electron emission from the double-acceptor state of the divacancy (V2). However, an asymmetric peak with its maximum at around 220K and an activation energy for electron emission of 0.42eV dominated the spectra. High resolution Laplace deep level transient spectroscopy was used to investigate the structure of E(0.42). It was found that this signal was complex; consisting of contributions arising from several defects. From the annealing behavior, it was deduced that - as some of these defects annealed out - they were sources of vacancies; as reflected by an increase in the concentration of VO and V2. It was suggested that some of the defects contributing to the E(0.42) peak were related to small vacancy clusters.

Vacancy-Related Complexes in Neutron-Irradiated Silicon. I.Kovacevic, V.P.Markevich, I.D.Hawkins, B.Pivac, A.R.Peaker: Journal of Physics - Condensed Matter, 2005, 17[22], S2229-35