Measurement of excited states of Sb impurity in Si by traveling–wave method

The ground and excited states of Sb atom in Si, 1s (A1), 1s (T2), 1s (E), and 2p0, were measured by using a traveling-wave method. The Sb-doped Si crystal with donor concentration of 2 × 1015 cm−3 was placed the distance of 5 μm above a piezoelectric crystal in the fringe field of a surface acoustic wave. The free electrons excited from the bound states of the Sb atom are drifted by the traveling-wave, and thus lose their energy as the Joule heat through lattice and ion scattering processes. A strong temperature-dependent energy loss of the traveling-wave can be observed at temperatures below 200 K. The values of the bound states of the Sb atom can be characterized by using the Arrhenius plot for thermal activation process of the electrons in the bound states. The measurements were carried out at two frequencies of the traveling-wave, 50 MHz and 200 MHz. At the frequency of 50 MHz, the dielectric properties of the Si crystal are governed by dopant polarization but by electronic polarization at 200 MHz. We found that measurement accuracy of the bound states depends mainly on the electron mobility and the dielectric constant of the Si crystal, which are sensitive to the frequency and strength of the traveling-wave as well as electronic polarization properties of the Si crystal.