Spatially resolved lifetime measurements in neutron-transmutation-doped polycrystalline silicon

Abstract

Spatially resolved carrier lifetimes have been measured at the same grain boundary using a series of adjacent samples doped to different levels by neutron transmutation. The samples had dopant concentration levels between 1013 and 1017 atoms/cm3. The carrier lifetime was measured using a contactless microwave absorption technique to monitor the decay of photoconductivity which allowed us to perform either isothermal or isochronal annealing to remove the damage caused by irradiation. An optimum anneal of 30 min at 700 °C resulted in almost full recovery to the lifetime before irradiation. A short laser pulse of wavelength 900 nm was focused to a 0.3-mm-diam spot on the samples. Lifetimes of two different sets of carriers were measured, the bulk carrier lifetime at the center of a grain and the carrier lifetime at a grain boundary. This latter carrier lifetime involves both fast and slow recombination mechanisms. The slow decay mechanism is due to interface states at the grain boundary. The fast recombination lifetime was found to be of the same order as the bulk recombination lifetime (of the order of 1 μs) and the slow one was of the order of 1 ms. Doping levels up to 1016 atoms/cm3 show no significant effect on the measured bulk carrier lifetime.