The use of gold diffusion for defect investigation in Si was illustrated by performing diffusion experiments on crystals containing grown-in or specially introduced defects. The effect of vacancy-type defects upon gold diffusion was illustrated by investigating nitrogen-doped float-zone and Czochralski Si after rapid thermal annealing. In both cases, the gold depth profile was typical of that for trap-limited diffusion. The effect of sinks upon self-interstitials in gold diffusion was illustrated by results obtained for plastically deformed Si. It was shown that, in silicon deformed at relatively low temperatures, the gold diffusion was largely governed by the defects in dislocation trails while, in high-temperature deformed Si, the sinks for self-interstitials were associated with the dislocations themselves.

An Application of Gold Diffusion for Defect Investigation in Silicon. O.V.Feklisova, E.B.Yakimov: Physica B, 2009, 404[23-24], 4681-4