Breathing-mode lattice relaxation accompanying emission and capture by deep electronic levels in silicon.

Abstract

The breathing-mode (volume) lattice relaxations associated with carrier emission and capture by a variety of deep electronic levels in silicon are evaluated from high-pressure measurements of the emission rates and capture cross sections. Included are (1) the vacancylike acceptor levels associated with the oxygen-vacancy pair (or A center) and the gold, platinum, and palladium impurities, (2) the chalcogenide donors in their singly and doubly charged states, (3) a number of 3d transition-metal donors, and (4) the phosphorus-vacancy pair (or E center) acceptor. The signs and magnitudes (which range from \ensuremath{\sim}0 to 5 A${\r{}}^{3}$/emitted-carrier) of these relaxations are discussed in terms of models for the impurities and defects responsible for the associated levels. The results on the chalcogenides are compared with recent theoretical results. The experimental method used appears to be the only viable experimental method for determining these relaxations which are a direct manifestation of the effective electron-phonon coupling at deep levels and which are important to the understanding of many of the properties of deep levels.