Properties of vacancies and self-interstitials in silicon deduced from crystal growth, wafer processing, self-diffusion and metal diffusion

Vacancies and self-interstitials in silicon are involved, in a straightforward way, in the formation of grown-in microdefects, diffusion of metals (Au, Zn), self-diffusion and installation of vacancy depth profiles in thin quenched wafers. The diffusivities and equilibrium concentrations of the intrinsic point defects, in dependence of temperature, could be deduced by analyzing these phenomena. The defect diffusivities are high while the equilibrium concentrations are remarkably low.