On the 0.34 eV hole trap in irradiated boron-doped silicon

A detailed deep level transient spectroscopy (DLTS) study has been carried out on a prominent hole trap at 0.34 eV above the valence band in irradiated p-type silicon. The boron concentration in the float zone and Czochralski-grown samples varied between 1012 and 1016 cm -3. Irradiations with 2.0 MeV electrons have been performed at nominal room temperature to total fluences of 1.0 x 1016 and 1.0 x 1017 e-/cm2. The introduction rate of the trap is strongly boron-dependent, while the oxygen content in the samples does not influence either the trap production rate or its observed annealing behaviour. In the light of these observations and other available data on this trap, a boron-carbon pair is tentatively proposed as the defect identity. A previously unreported hole trap at 0.45 eV above the valence band has also been observed in this work in highly boron-doped material. The isothermal and isochronal annealing characteristics of both traps have been investigated up to 4000C. (author)