DLTS Studies of Neutron Camage in P-Type Silicon

Damage produced in p-type silicon by neutron irradiation at room temperature was studied by deep-level transient spectroscopy (DLTS). The production of three defects (Ev + 0.15, Ev + 0.34 and Ev + 0.45 eV) by neutron irradiation and the formation of two defects (Ev + 0.25 and Ev + 0.21 eV) during annealing were reported. It was found that many properties of the neutron damage were similar to those of the electron damage obtained by other works as far as the DLTS measurements are concerned. The DLTS measuements indicated no evidence for the production of defect clusters in the neutron damage. By comparing with the results previously obtained by the Hall effect measurements, it was found that the DLTS measurements mainly evaluated the properties of the point defects outside the clusters. The fact that the DLTS measurements did nto reflect the properties fo the defect clusters was ascribed to the reduction of majority carrier capture by defects inside the clusters due to the potential barrier formed by the cluster-space-charge regions.