Magnetic and Electrical Properties of Reactor-Irradiated Silicon

Abstract

Magnetic susceptibility measurements above 3°K and Hall effect and resistivity determinations between 50 and 300°K are reported for n‐type silicon samples irradiated with increasingly higher doses of fission neutrons. The paramagnetism due to electronic states in the forbidden gap shows an initial decrease after short irradiation but a reversal, increase, and final saturation at a value less than that originally contributed to the paramagnetism by the filled donors after longer irradiation. The Hall coefficient shows evidence of a distribution of irradiation‐produced energy levels in the neighborhood of 0.3 ev below the conduction band. The mobility goes through an initial sharp decrease with irradiation but recovers partially after longer irradiations. The results are discussed in terms of several models of radiation damage. It is concluded that a simple model based on uniformly dispersed interstitials and vacancies is not adequate to explain the results and that interactions between centers, and nonuniform distribution of damage will probably have to be taken into consideration.