Abstract
The 1f noise of single-crystal silicon and germanium has been examined as a function of naturally occurring imperfection densities, dislocations produced by plastic deformation, and imperfections resulting from fast-neutron irradiation. In all cases the noise power decreases with increasing crystalline imperfection. The results may be quantitatively explained by assuming that 1f noise is proportional to the square of the minority carrier lifetime and accounting for the decrease in lifetime due to imperfections.