The technologically useful properties of a crystalline solid depend upon the concentration of defects it contained. Here it was shown that defect concentrations as deep as 0.5μm within a semiconductor could be profoundly influenced by gas adsorption. Self-diffusion rates within Si showed that N atoms adsorbed at less than 1% of a monolayer lead to defect concentrations that varied controllably over several orders of magnitude. The results showed that previous measurements of diffusion and defect thermodynamics in semiconductors may had suffered from neglect of adsorption effects.

Control of Defect Concentrations within a Semiconductor through Adsorption. E.G.Seebauer, K.Dev, M.Y.Jung, R.Vaidyanathan, C.T.Kwok, J.W.Ager, E.E.Haller, R.D.Braatz: Physical Review Letters., 2006, 97[5], 055503 (3pp)