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Title: EPR and optical studies of oxygen complexes in silicon

Thesis/Dissertation ·
OSTI ID:7249534

Oxygen, the dominant impurity in pulled silicon, forms electrically active defect complexes under both thermal annealing and energetic particle irradiation. This dissertation describes the use of electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR), photoluminescence (PL), and infrared absorption (IR) spectroscopies to study and describe the structural features of two previously discovered oxygen complexes in silicon. An EPR spectrum, observed in electron-irradiated silicon and labeled Si-G15, is shown to originate from the same carbon-oxygen complex as does the well studied C-line photoluminescence spectrum with zero phonon line at 0.79 eV. Both the g-tensor and the {sup 13}C hyperfine tensor were found to be remarkably similar to those for the isolated interstitial carbon atom. Stress-induced alignment experiments reveal that the oxygen remains in its normal bond-centered interstitial position. The two constituents of this C{sub i}-O{sub i} pair are therefore not strongly distorted from their isolated configurations. The pairing leads to the relaxation of nearby lattice atoms consistent with the low C{sub 1h} symmetry which stabilizes the complex against dissociation.

Research Organization:
Lehigh Univ., Bethlehem, PA (USA)
OSTI ID:
7249534
Resource Relation:
Other Information: Thesis (Ph. D.)
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English