Infrared studies of oxygen and carbon associated defects in electron-irradiated silicon

Infrared absorption measurements were made before and after 90 °K electron irradiations of silicon samples which contained either dispersed oxygen, carbon, or carbon plus oxygen. Irradiation-produced absorption bands associated with two distinctly different defects are observed depending on the oxygen and carbon content of the silicon. One center is the well-known vacancy-oxygen A-center defect (836-cm −1 band) and is formed on irradiation in oxygen-containing silicon with a magnitude which is independent of the carbon content. Measurements have correlated the formation of one A-center with the loss of one interstitial oxygen atom, thereby indicating that A-center formation occurs by vacancy trapping at interstitial oxygen atoms. A second center (922-and 932-cm −1 bands) is formed only in silicon crystals which contain both oxygen and carbon. The results indicate that this center is formed by the trapping of a silicon interstitial at a carbon-oxygen complex.