Correlations of vibrational frequencies with VO/sub 4/ defect in irradiated silicon

Abstract

This paper reports infrared spectroscopy studies on oxygen related defects in Czochralsky grown neutron irradiated Silicon material subsequently submitted to heat treatment. The sequential formation of various VO/sub n/ (n=1,2,3,4) defects according to the reaction process VO/spl rarr/VO/sub 2//spl rarr/VO/sub 3//spl rarr/VO/sub 4/ is investigated. We argue that on increasing the annealing temperature different sites for the addition of oxygen atoms become available, triggering for n>2 two parallel formation sequencies in relation with VO/sub 3/ and VO/sub 4/ defects. Thus in the first sequence the oxygen atoms are added in adjacent sites to VO/sub 2/ defect although in the second sequence the oxygen atoms are added in the same vacant site of VO/sub 2/ defect.