Enhanced formation of thermal donors in germanium doped Czochralski silicon pretreated by rapid thermal annealing

The thermal donor formation at 425 degrees C - 450 degrees C in Ge doped Czochralski (GCZ) silicon having about 10(16)cm(-3) Ge content pretreated by rapid thermal annealing (RTA) and conventional furnace annealing (CIA) has been investigated using low-temperature infrared spectroscopy (LT-IR). The measurements prove that lightly Ge doping can enhance the formation of thermal double donors in the initial stage of the low temperature annealing after RTA process. Ge induced additional grown-in oxygen precipitates during silicon ingot growth and the abundant self-interstitials during RTA may be the reason for the enhancement. However, after extending the annealing time at the low temperatures, the thermal donor concentration in the GCZ silicon is lower than that in the conventional CZ silicon. In final, the mechanism is also discussed.