Electronic Properties and Thermal Stability of Defects Induced by MeV Electron/Ion Irradiations in Unstrained Germanium and SiGe Alloys

Abstract

Deep states produced during γ irradiation of germanium have been compared with the defects produced by 1 and 3MeV silicon ion implantation. The deep states have been studied using DLTS and Laplace DLTS techniques. Isochronal annealing has been used to investigate the defect evolution and stability over the range 100 to 500°C. It is found that while irradiation damage can be removed with a very low thermal budget, the implantation damage is more complex and much more difficult to remove. By comparing low (1010cm-2) and high (1012cm-2) implantation doses it appears that both the complexity and stability of defects increases with increasing dose. Similar experiments have been performed on Ge rich Si1-xGex (x=0.992). The focus of this work has been on vacancy related defects. It is believed that the diffusion of both acceptors and donors is vacancy mediated in Ge and so vacancy clusters rather than interstitial clusters are expected to be the technologically significant defect in enhanced diffusion. The significance in terms of junction leakage and generation currents are discussed in the paper in the context of the observed defect reactions.