Abstract
Deep level transient spectroscopy has been used to investigate the effects of alpha irradiation and thermal annealing on deep levels in gold-doped n-type silicon. Data on thermal annealing characteristics of the well-known gold acceptor up to temperatures as high as about 600 °C are reported. This level is found to be very stable, supporting the substitutional gold model for the acceptor center. Interaction of the gold-related defects with radiation-induced defects has been investigated using 5.48 MeV alpha particles for irradiation, combined with isochronal thermal annealing before and after irradiation. Irradiation produces the usual radiation-induced levels. A slight reduction in the gold-acceptor concentration is observed due to irradiation, contrary to an earlier reported study. A noticeable suppression of the thermal stability of this level is also observed after irradiation. The presence of gold leads to a significant enhancement of the anneal-out temperature of the well-known A-center defect. A deep level at Ec−0.34 eV, ascribed to the Fe–Au complex, is found to be enhanced by irradiation. No evidence is found to support the recently proposed gold-divacancy complex model of the gold acceptor—rather, the results strongly support the isolated substitutional impurity model for this center.
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