This paper reviews the present knowledge of charge transport properties in silicon, with special emphasis on their application in the design of solid-state devices. Therefore, most attention is devoted to experimental findings in the temperature range around 300 K and to high-field properties. Phenomenological expressions are given, when possible, for the most important transport quantities as functions of temperature, field or impurity concentration. The discussion is limited to bulk properties, with only a few comments on surface transport.

A review of some charge transport properties of silicon

A review is presented of the various theoretical methods that have thus far been developed for the study of states introduced by impurities and other point defects in semiconductors. The main body of the paper is prefaced with brief sections on the role of impurities and defects in semiconductors and on the general aspects of experimental techniques, as an appropriate setting for the theoretical discourse. Theoretical methods, including those of the effective-mass type, and a wide range of methods appropriate to deep levels are then presented. Applications of these methods are discussed critically. Finally, the relative merits of the various approaches are compared and the prospects for future work are assessed.

The electronic structure of impurities and other point defects in semiconductors

The optical properties of luminescence centres in silicon

The method of obtaining pure polycrystalline silicon is described, followed by short accounts of how this material is converted into single-crystal form either by the Czochralski (CZ) pulling method or the float-zone (FZ) method. It is shown that the silicon contains various impurities including oxygen, carbon, boron and possibly hydrogen. The defects and impurities often show a nonhomogeneous distribution in the form of helical swirls. Heat treatment of silicon-containing oxygen leads to the clustering of this impurity. At 450 degrees C there is formation of small complexes that act as shallow donors. Investigations using IR and ESR spectroscopy have so far failed to determine the atomic configuration of the defects. Heating at higher temperatures causes wide-scale precipitation of oxygen. There are interactions with carbon and there can be formation of silicon carbide precipitates. Contamination from Cu, Au, Fe, etc., can occur during these treatments and methods for gettering these metals are discussed, involving dislocations and silica precipitates. Low-temperature irradiations produce vacancies and self-interstitials which combine with impurities to form complexes on heating from 4K to 300K. Evidence is presented to illustrate the possible charge states of self-interstitials. Damage produced by fast neutrons is discussed next, followed by a brief account of neutron transmutation doping whereby neutrally occurring 30Si is converted to 31P by the capture of thermal neutrons. Some aspects of high-temperature diffusion are discussed and attempts are made to correlate the data with that derived from the irradiation studies.

https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/0034-4885/45/10/003/pdf

Defects in silicon

A broad review of the physics of point defects, i.e. electrically active and neutral impurities and impurity complexes is given. Basic material science which is crucial for understanding the physics is summarized in an introductory section. It is followed by the detailed description of the novel measurement techniques—photothermal ionization spectroscopy, high-Q electron paramagnetic resonance and deep level spectroscopy. These spectroscopic techniques have had a profound impact on the investigations of ultra-pure germanium. The major part of this work deals with the physics of point defects in ultra-pure germanium. The high purity of this semiconductor allows the undisturbed observation of highly excited bound states of shallow donors and acceptors. Many new previously unknown acceptor and donor centres have been discovered in ultra-pure germanium. The nature of several of these centres can be understood in terms of a complex consisting of two impurities—a light interstitial atom (for example, h...

/pdf/physics-of-ultra-pure-germanium-1y0eoiua5n.pdf

Physics of ultra-pure germanium

The advantages of Fourier analysis of quantum magnetoresistance peaks are demonstrated in the first application of these techniques to a study of the magnetophonon effect in a number of semiconductors and also to the subnikov-de Haas effect in MOS devices. The change in amplitude of these series is investigated as a function of applied electric field. The phonons involved are identified and are all shown to be intervalley with the exception of the highest energy phonon. In contrast Fourier analysis of the magnetophonon spectrum for n-Ge shows that intervalley scattering in this material is weaker by at least a factor of 20 than intravalley scattering by high energy phonons. With both n-Ge and n-GaAs considerable sharpening of the magnetophonon peaks is detected and a strong second harmonic of the fundamental magnetophonon frequency is observed in each case on the Fourier analysis. With n-GaAs as the temperature dependence of the amplitude and damping of the magnetophonon series is compared with the theory developed by Barker (1972).

Fourier analysis of magnetophonon and two-dimensional Shubnikov-de Haas magnetoresistance structure

Far infrared photoconductivity from majority and minority impurities in high purity Si and Ge

Up to eleven magnetophonon peaks are observed in the transverse magnetoresistance of high purity epitaxial films of n-type inp at temperatures between 77 and 300 k The low frequency cyclotron effective mass of the electrons is found to be 00820 +or- 00010 m0 at 77 k and 00781 +or- 00010 m0 at 300 k

S. Askenazy

Papers

Fourier analysis of magnetophonon and two-dimensional Shubnikov-de Haas magnetoresistance structure

Far infrared photoconductivity from majority and minority impurities in high purity Si and Ge

The magnetophonon effect in epitaxial films of n-type inp

A study of intervalley scattering in n-Si by the magnetophonon effect

A study of intervalley scattering in n-Si by stress-dependent longitudinal magnetophonon resonance