Modelling lifetime degradation in boron-doped Czochralski silicon

Electron lifetime in boron-and oxygen-containing silicon is known to decrease under illumination. The emerging recombination centre was previously thought to be a complex B(s)O(2), of a substitutional boron atom and an oxygen dimer. However this attribution has turned out to be inconsistent with recently published data. A new model was proposed, based on a latent single-positive complex B(i)O(2) that involves an interstitial boron atom B(i) rather than B(s). Excess electrons lead to recharging the latent B(i)O(2) centre into the neutral state, with subsequent reconstruction into recombination-active configuration. This model was used to simulate the reported data on production of recombination centres, in a wide range of applied illumination intensity - and found to provide a good reproduction of the data. (C) 2011 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim