Oxygen '96

Early Stages of Oxygen Precipitation in Silicon

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VARIOUS CONFIGURATIONS OF ISOLATED OXYGEN IN SEMICONDUCTORS

Groupe de Physique des Solides, Universit Denis Diderot 75251, Paris Cedex 05, FRANCE

Keywords: interstitial oxygen, silicon, germanium, gallium arsenide

Isolated oxygen has been identified in a few semiconductors, but has been mostly investigated in Si because it is the starting entity for different aggregation states, whose control is important for the fabrication of silicon-based devices. I compare in this presentation the data on the isolated oxygen forms in Si with those in Ge and GaAs. I discuss the structure and dynamics of interstitial oxygen in Si and Ge at the light of recent experimental and theoretical results based on isotopic substitutions. I compare the piezo-spectroscopic results obtained on interstitial and quasi-substitutional forms of oxygen in GaAs with those in Si. I present then a summary of the illumination effects observed for quasi-substitutional oxygen in semi-insulating (SI) GaAs in relation with changes in the charge states and metastability. The results on interstitial and quasi-substitutional oxygen in GaAs are finally compared with ab initio calculations which predict, besides the quasi-substitutional form of oxygen, a true substitutional form.

I discuss briefly the interaction of hydrogen with oxygen in GaAs, where at least another configuration of oxygen, bonded to hydrogen, is found, but not identified with certainty. I finally try to summarise what is known of oxygen in GaP and ZnTe.

Last modified: Mon Feb 19 12:11:08 GMT 1996 JG