Simulation of the creation of a defect structure of dislocation-free germanium single crystals

•At high temperatures in germanium there is a barrier against the recombination of intrinsic point defects.•Decrease in the barrier is due to a decrease in the configuration entropy with decreasing temperature.•Vacancy and interstitial atoms of germanium find their drains on impurity atoms.•Formation and growth of impurity precipitates. The basis for applying the model of high-temperature impurity precipitation is decay of a supersaturated solid solution of point defects near the crystallization front. A necessary condition for high-temperature precipitation is absence of recombination processes of intrinsic point defects (vacancies and intrinsic interstitial atoms, IPDs) at high temperatures. The recombination parameters for dislocation-free germanium single crystals were estimated using the terms and concepts of Voronkov's recombination-diffusion model. It was shown that at high temperatures in germanium there is a barrier against the recombination of IPDs. It is assumed that the formation of structural imperfections, as well as in silicon, proceeds through the interaction “impurity + IPD”. The possibility of applying the mathematical apparatus the diffusion model of formation of structural imperfections to the formation of a defective structure in undoped dislocation-free germanium single crystals is considered.