Ultra-slow dynamic annealing of neutron-induced defects in n-type silicon: role of charge carriers

Neutron bombardments with equivalent fluence (1 × 1010 cm−2) and different fluxes (2.5 × 105 cm−2 s−1 to 1 × 107 cm−2 s−1) have been performed on three kinds of bipolar devices with n-type silicon as active regions. The measured increase of base currents and input bias currents are found to decrease with increasing neutron flux, implying that the strength of the dynamic annealing of divacancy defects in n-type silicon follows a positive flux dependence. Such a flux dependence is the same as that observed in ions implantation using protons, but the evident flux sensitivity in our experiment is 4 orders of magnitude lower than that of proton bombardment, despite the similarity in the masses and energies of the two particles. The huge discrepancy of flux range is attributed to the presence of vast charge carriers in proton bombardments, which strongly accelerate the dynamic annealing of defects by enhancing the diffusion velocity of Si interstitials and dissociation rate of defect clusters. Our work would contribute to the understanding of the defect annealing processes in silicon.