Activation Kinetics of the Boron–oxygen Defect in Compensated n- and p-type Silicon Studied by High-Injection Micro-Photoluminescence

Insitu measurement of the activation kinetics of the slowly forming recombination center (SRC) of the boron-oxygen defect in compensated n- and p-type silicon (n-Si and p-Si) under high-injection conditions is realized through micro-photoluminescence measurements. The high-injection conditions significantly accelerate the defect activation. Another advantage of this method is that the injection level can be kept almost constant during the defect activation and in differently doped samples, as the high-injection lifetime is dominated by Auger recombination. Courtesy of this, the activation time constant remains steady during the activation of the defects, and the activation time constant and defect concentration in differently doped samples can be compared more directly. The results confirm that the defect activation rate constant is the same at high-injection levels in both n- and p-type samples, and that it only depends on the hole concentration p, but not on [O i] or [B]. The effective saturated defect concentration normalized with [Oi ]
²
is independent of the doping in n-Si, and increases with the net doping in p-Si. The latent form reconfiguration model for the defect, instead of the Bs-O2i model, is considered to be more compatible with these findings.