The effect of thermal-neutron radiation on the decomposition of an oxygen solid solution in silicon

Abstract

This paper presents the analysis of peculiarities of defect formation in the course of thermal treatment in silicon single crystals grown by the Czochralski method and exposed to thermal-neutron radiation, under the modes usually applied in transmutation doping of silicon ingots. The processes of defect formation were estimated using X-ray diffuse scattering and IR-spectroscopy. It is demonstrated that such doping results in the variation of the state in the material lattice of impurities such as oxygen and carbon. Moreover, subsequent high-temperature annealing leads to the recovery of concentration of interstitial oxygen and does not result in the recovery of the carbon concentration in the lattice nodes. The effect is studied of radiation on peculiar features of the formation of oxygen-containing microdefects in a silicon lattice at high-temperature annealing, used for the formation of an internal getter in silicon wafers.