Chapter 4 - Oxygen in germanium

Abstract

Not only in silicon but also in germanium extensive studies have been devoted to the different aspects of oxygen in the material––namely, interstitial concentration, detection techniques, precipitation behavior, and the formation of oxygen related to thermal donors. In contrast to Si, the Czochralski growth technique only leads to moderate oxygen levels. The important gap in the knowledge concerning oxygen-related defects in germanium compared to silicon has been diminished in the past two decades. In general, the similarity among those defects in silicon and germanium is amazing, despite some differences in details, which seem related to differences in band structure parameters, lattice constant or chemical properties. The knowledge of the properties of interstitial oxygen, oxygen dimmers, TDs and the A-centre may be considered to be satisfactory.