Photostimulated diffusion within solid semiconductors was examined for many years, but its existence above room temperature had not been unambiguously confirmed. Here, diffusion rates for silicon self-diffusion were shown to change by factors of up to 25 in response to optical fluxes on the order of 1W/cm2. Results depended on doping type; the rates of both interstitial formation and migration were affected in the case of n-type material. A model based on photostimulated changes in defect charge state explains the primary results, and the basic outlines should apply to a wide variety of semiconductors.

Measurement of Photostimulated Self-Diffusion in Silicon. E.G.Seebauer, M.Y.L.Jung, C.T.M.Kwok, R.Vaidyanathan, Y.V.Kondratenko: Journal of Applied Physics, 2011, 109[10], 103708