Nonradiative recombination via deep impurity levels in silicon: Experiment

Abstract

The nonradiative recombination of excess charge carriers via deep levels induced by transition-metal impurities in silicon is investigated experimentally. In order to reveal the recombination mechanism, the carrier lifetime is measured as a function of temperature, carrier density, and electric field. In addition, a direct proof for trap Auger recombination is given based on the highly excited Auger particles. Since our results exclude the usual models for capture into deep impurity levels, we propose a new model for deep-level recombination: The excitonic Auger recombination via deep impurity levels is shown to explain our experimental results consistently.