Oxygen and peculiarities of its precipitation in Si1-xGex

The effect of germanium content (N-Ge less than or equal to 7.4 x 10(21) cm(-3)) in solid solutions Si1-xGex on the behavior of v(3) vibrational mode of oxygen and kinetic formation of the low-temperature (450 degrees C) thermal donors (TD) was investigated. It has been shown that the higher is Ge content in Si1-xGex, the lower are oxygen loss at heat treatment and TD formation rate. From the dependencies of the intensity of absorption band, corresponding to v3 vibrational mode of oxygen, TD concentration and oxygen loss at heat treatment on Ge content in Si1-xGex, an assumption is made that interstitial oxygen having Ge atoms in their second or third nearest-neighboring sites do not take part in low-temperature TD formation. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.