Skip to content
Physics and Astronomy

Quantum Systems and Nanomaterials Group

Home Research Quantum Systems and Nanomaterials NATO BECHNEILSEN_B.html
Back to top

Oxygen '96

Early Stages of Oxygen Precipitation in Silicon

UNIAXIAL STRESS MEASUREMENTS ON OXYGEN-IMPLANTED SILICON: THE 889 cm-1 LOCAL MODE

B. Bech Neilsen T. Lisby and K. Bonde Nielsen.

Institute of Physics and Astronomy, University of Aarhus, DK-8000 Aarhus C. Denmark

Local vibrational mode spectroscopy has been applied previously to study the early stages of oxygen agglomeration in crystalline silicon. In particular, an oxygen local mode at 889 cm-1 has been observed in electron-irradiated Czochralski-grown silicon annealed at about 300 degrees C. Experimental evidence suggests that this mode originates from a defect containing two weakly coupled oxygen atoms. The defect has tentatively been identified with VO2, i.e. a monovacancy in which two oxygen atoms saturate the four dangling bonds. This model is also consistent with recent ab initio theoretical calculations. However, no experimental information on the symmetry of the defect has been presented so far and the microstructure remains unidentified.

In this work, the 889 cm-1 centre is studied by uniaxial stress spectroscopy. Silicon crystals with dimensions 2x2x10 mm3 were cut from float-zone material. The crystals were aligned with the [001], [110] or [111] axis and two opposing 2x10 mm2 sides were polished. Oxygen ions (O5+) were implanted at room temperature at 168 different and equidistant energies in the range from 12 to 33 MeV. The dose at each energy was chosen to yield a nearly uniform oxygen profile extending from 8.0 to 22.2 micro-m below the surface with a local concentration of 1.5x1019 cm-3. Just after the implantation, the local modes of the VO defect (A-centre) at 836 cm-1 and of interstitial oxygen at 1136 cm-1 are observed with infrared absorption spectroscopy at 8 K. After a 30-min. anneal at 330 degrees C, several new oxygen-related modes appear as reported previously. Among these, there is a mode at 889 cm-1 which shifts up in frequency to 895 cm-1 when the temperature is lowered to 8 K. The uniaxial stress measurements show that the defect responsible for this mode either has tetragonal (e.g. D2d) symmetry and that the mode is a two dimensional E mode or that the centre has orthorhombic I (C2v) symmetry and that the mode is one-dimensional. These findings are consistent with the VO2 model which has D2d symmetry but other structures with C2v symmetry cannot be ruled out. If the VO2 structure is correct, then the motions of the two oxygen atoms corresponding to the 889 cm-1 mode are uncoupled, as predicted by theory.


Full list of abstracts | participants list | main page.
Last modified: Mon Feb 19 17:20:04 GMT 1996 JG
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       

Validate   Link-check © Copyright & disclaimer Privacy & cookies Share
Back to top