Charge-sensitive deep level transient spectroscopy of helium-ion-irradiated silicon, as-irradiated and after thermal annealing

Electrically active defects in the phosphor-doped single-crystal silicon, induced by helium-ion irradiation under thermal annealing, have been investigated. Isothermal charge-sensitive deep-level transient spectroscopy was employed to study the activation energy and capture cross-section of helium-induced defects in silicon samples. It was shown that the activation energy levels produced by helium-ion irradiation first increased with increasing annealing temperature, with the maximum value of the activation energy occurring at 873K, and reduced with further increase of the annealing temperature. The energy levels of defects in the samples annealed at 873 and 1073K are found to be located near the mid-forbidden energy gap level so that they can act as thermally stable carrier recombination centres.