Extraction of Surface Recombination Velocity at Highly Doped Silicon Surfaces Using Electron-Beam-Induced Current

In this paper, we demonstrate that the surface recombination velocity of electrons S_n0 at highly p⁺-doped silicon surfaces can be quantified using the electron-beam-induced current (EBIC) technique. First, the 3-D electron-beam sample interaction is simulated using CASINO Monte-Carlo software in order to generate the 3-D carrier generation profile. Subsequently, this carrier generation profile is used in Sentaurus Technical Computer-Aided Design device modeling, and the EBIC response is simulated as a function of S_n0. The simulation results show a near-perfect match with the EBIC measurements obtained on a passivated and depassivated p⁺-emitter of n-type silicon wafer solar cells. In addition, localized Sn0 extraction on an area of 30 × 30 nm² is presented, clearly illustrating the advantage of EBIC as an electron-beam-based characterization technique compared with optical techniques.