Kinetics of the electronically stimulated formation of a boron-oxygen complex in crystalline silicon

Abstract

We present experimental data relating to the slow stage of the illumination-induced or electron-injection-induced generation, in crystalline $p$-type silicon, of the carrier-recombination center believed to be the defect complex ${\left({\mathrm{B}}_s{\mathrm{O}}_{2i}\right)}^{+}$ formed by diffusion of oxygen interstitial dimers $\mathrm{O}_{2i}{}^{++}$ to substitutional boron atoms $\mathrm{B}_s{}^{-}$ and, taking account of those data, we consider a detailed theoretical model for the kinetics of the diffusion reaction. The model proposes that the generation rate of the ${\left({\mathrm{B}}_s{\mathrm{O}}_{2i}\right)}^{+}$ defects is controlled by the capture of a majority-carrier hole by the dimer following the capture of a minority-carrier electron and by the Coulomb attraction of the $\mathrm{O}_{2i}{}^{++}$ to the $\mathrm{B}_s{}^{-}$ atom, and leads to predictions for the defect generation rate that are in excellent quantitative agreement with experiment.