On the peculiarities of radiation defect annealing in neutron-irradiated silicon

The discrepancy between the temperatures of annealing of the same radiation defects (RD) in industrial and neutron-irradiated silicon (NIS) is revealed for the first time. The coefficient of radiation damage τp in NIS in approximately two times lower than that in industrial silicon. Isochronic annealing of irradiated samples was performed in 150-800 deg C temperature range to establish RD thermal stability. A relative change in divacancy concentration under isochronic annealing of NIS and industrial silicon irradiated by neutron fluence of 3x1014 cm-2 is illustrated. The analysis of the annealing curves attests that RD and NIS thermal decay occures in the range of 425-450 deg C and complete annealing of industrial silicon takes place at significantly lower temperatures (325-350 deg C) as compared to NIS