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Electrically Active Copper–Nickel Complexes in p‐Type Silicon
Author(s) -
Yarykin Nikolai,
Weber Jörg
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
physica status solidi (a)
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.532
H-Index - 104
eISSN - 1862-6319
pISSN - 1862-6300
DOI - 10.1002/pssa.201900304
Subject(s) - copper , nickel , silicon , materials science , valence band , atom (system on chip) , valence (chemistry) , photoluminescence , diffusion , crystallography , analytical chemistry (journal) , chemistry , metallurgy , band gap , physics , optoelectronics , organic chemistry , chromatography , computer science , thermodynamics , embedded system
The interaction of substitutional copper atoms (Cu s ) with interstitial nickel (Ni i ) or copper (Cu i ) in crystalline p‐type Si is investigated by DLTS. The mobile interstitial species are introduced at near‐room temperatures by etching in Ni‐ or Cu‐contaminated KOH aqueous solutions. The Cu i in‐diffusion is confirmed by the formation of several deep level complexes including the photoluminescence Cu PL center which is known to be a Cu s atom decorated with three Cu i species. The Ni i in‐diffusion results in the appearance of three novel electrically active Cu‐Ni complexes; two of them are unstable at room temperature and transform into the third center which possesses a level at 0.16 eV above the top of the valence band. The deep‐level depth profiles below the etched surface affirm that all three Cu‐Ni complexes are formed on the base of one Cu s atom by means of addition at least one Ni i and one or more Cu i species.