EBIC INVESTIGATIONS OF DISLOCATIONS AND THEIR INTERACTIONS WITH IMPURITIES IN SILICON

The applicability of the EBIC technique for studying the gettering of impurities to dislocations and other extended defects is discussed, including how quantitative values for the energy level position and concentration of the resulting electronic states can be determined when the Wilshaw model of recombination is obeyed. New experimental results from ''clean'' dislocations deformed at 900-degrees-C are presented along with evidence of the existence of a band of states at dislocations. In addition, EBIC measurements of nickel decorated dislocations show recombination behaviour that may be described in terms of a mixture of Wilshaw's recombination model and another type of mechanism. Finally, a new effect termed ''electron beam induced activity'' has been discovered, whereby the electron beam increases the electrical activity observed.