Radiation damage in silicon exposed to high-energy protons
- Department of Physics, King's College London, Strand, London WC2R 2LS (United Kingdom)
Photoluminescence, infrared absorption, positron annihilation, and deep-level transient spectroscopy (DLTS) have been used to investigate the radiation damage produced by 24 GeV/c protons in crystalline silicon. The irradiation doses and the concentrations of carbon and oxygen in the samples have been chosen to monitor the mobility of the damage products. Single vacancies (and self-interstitials) are introduced at the rate of {approx}1 cm{sup -1}, and divacancies at 0.5 cm{sup -1}. Stable di-interstitials are formed when two self-interstitials are displaced in one damage event, and they are mobile at room temperature. In the initial stages of annealing the evolution of the point defects can be understood mainly in terms of trapping at the impurities. However, the positron signal shows that about two orders of magnitude more vacancies are produced by the protons than are detected in the point defects. Damage clusters exist, and are largely removed by annealing at 700 to 800 K, when there is an associated loss of broad band emission between 850 and 1000 meV. The well-known W center is generated by restructuring within clusters, with a range of activation energies of about 1.3 to 1.6 eV, reflecting the disordered nature of the clusters. Comparison of the formation of the X centers in oxygenated and oxygen-lean samples suggests that the J defect may be interstitial related rather than vacancy related. To a large extent, the damage and annealing behavior may be factorized into point defects (monitored by sharp-line optical spectra and DLTS) and cluster defects (monitored by positron annihilation and broadband luminescence). Taking this view to the limit, the generation rates for the point defects are as predicted by simply taking the damage generated by the Coulomb interaction of the protons and Si nuclei.
- OSTI ID:
- 20788078
- Journal Information:
- Physical Review. B, Condensed Matter and Materials Physics, Vol. 73, Issue 16; Other Information: DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevB.73.165202; (c) 2006 The American Physical Society; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 1098-0121
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY
ACTIVATION ENERGY
ANNEALING
ANNIHILATION
CARBON
COMPARATIVE EVALUATIONS
DEEP LEVEL TRANSIENT SPECTROSCOPY
EV RANGE
GEV RANGE
INFRARED SPECTRA
INTERSTITIALS
OXYGEN
PHOTOLUMINESCENCE
PHYSICAL RADIATION EFFECTS
POSITRONS
PROTONS
SEMICONDUCTOR MATERIALS
SILICON
TEMPERATURE RANGE 0273-0400 K
TRAPPING
X CENTERS