Distribution of Electron-Bombardment-Induced Radiation Defects with Depth in Silicon

The electron-voltaic effect in commercial silicon p-n junctions is used to determine the distribution of radiation defects with penetration distance for a 500-keV electron beam in n-type silicon. It is shown that the concentration of radiation defects falls off far more rapidly than previously reported by Vavilov et al., who used changes in resistivity to determine the distribution. Their experimental data are reinterpreted and found to be in reasonable agreement with the electron-voltaic data. Attempts are made to explain the experimental data by constructing radiation defect vs depth curves using various relations for the probability of defect formation as a function of electron energy, and for electron energy as a function of penetration distance. Reasonable agreement exists between such theoretical curves and the experimental data.