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Comparison of Silicon Photoluminescence and Photoconductive Decay for Material Quality Characterization

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 February 2011

Steven Johnston ,
Richard Ahrenkiel ,
Pat Dippo ,
Matt Page  and
Wyatt Metzger
Steven Johnston
Affiliation:
steve_johnston@nrel.gov, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Measurements and Characterization, 1617 Cole Blvd., Golden, CO, 80401, United States, 303-384-6466, 303-384-6604
Richard Ahrenkiel
Affiliation:
rahrenki@du.edu, University of Denver, 2112 E. Wesley Ave., Denver, CO, 80208, United States
Pat Dippo
Affiliation:
pat_dippo@nrel.gov, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, 1617 Cole Blvd., Golden, CO, 80401, United States
Matt Page
Affiliation:
matthew_page@nrel.gov, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, 1617 Cole Blvd., Golden, CO, 80401, United States
Wyatt Metzger
Affiliation:
wyatt_metzger@nrel.gov, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, 1617 Cole Blvd., Golden, CO, 80401, United States
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Abstract

Minority-carrier lifetime in silicon directly relates to defect- and impurity-related recombination, and thus gives a measure of material quality. Lifetime measurements are useful in research laboratories and commercial production environments as an indicator for process development and quality control. While photoconductivity (PCD) techniques for measuring lifetime are commercially available, there has recently been interest in using photoluminescence (PL) to characterize lifetime in silicon because of the measurement speed to image an entire wafer and higher mapping resolution. The intensity of band-to-band PL is theoretically proportional to the effective bulk lifetime in low-injection conditions if carrier diffusion and re-absorption are neglected, surface recombination is small, and silicon properties, such as carrier concentration and the radiative recombination coefficient, are constant. We show data that compare lifetimes from PCD techniques to PL intensity for varying-resistivity, single-crystal silicon. Surface conditions are also varied (native oxide, thermal oxide, and HF etch/methyl-iodine solution), and the measured lifetimes are compared to corresponding PL intensity.

Keywords

Siphotoconductivitydefects
Type
Research Article
Information
MRS Online Proceedings Library (OPL) , Volume 994: Symposium F – Semiconductor Defect Engineering–Materials, Synthetic Structures and Devices II , 2007 , 0994-F07-04
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2007

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