Temperature and injection dependence of the Shockley–Read–Hall lifetime in electron irradiated n -type silicon

• Published in: Journal of applied physics 1996-06, Vol.79 (12), p.9142-9148
• Main Authors: Bleichner, H., Jonsson, P., Keskitalo, N., Nordlander, E.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 0021-8979; 1089-7550
• DOI: 10.1063/1.362585

Using three measurement techniques the injection and temperature dependence of the Shockley–Read–Hall (SRH) carrier lifetime was studied. Flying-spot scanning was used for the measurement of lifetimes under low-level injection. Open-circuit carrier decay for the measurement of high-injection lifetime, and deep-level transient spectroscopy for the characterization of active recombination centers. The samples were silicon p-i-n type diodes (p+-n-n+) irradiated with 15 MeV electrons for lifetime control. The measurements consistently show that two defect levels located at Ec−0.164 eV (E1) correlated to the vacancy-oxygen complex and Ec−0.421 eV (E4) correlated to the single-negatively charged state of the divacancy are significant for the SRH lifetime in different injection domains in the low-doped n-type region. The E1 recombination center is dominating the high-injection lifetime and the E4 center is dominating the low-injection lifetime. Similar to other authors, additional defect levels have also been observed, but the E1 and E4 levels seem sufficient to explain the behavior of electron-irradiated semiconductor power devices.