The electron capture cross section and energy level of the gold acceptor center in silicon

Abstract

The electron capture cross section of the gold acceptor center has been measured by a direct technique which measures the electron‐trapping rate. The value was found to be 9±2×10⁻¹⁷ cm² over the temperature range 77–280 K. Using this value together with thermal emission data, the energy level of the center was calculated from the detailed balance equation. Assuming a degeneracy factor of 4, the calculated temperature variation of the energy level (as measured from the conduction band) was found to be very similar to the temperature variation of band gap itself, indicating that the acceptor level may be fixed to the valence band edge with a separation of 0.632±0.004 eV.