Electrical activity of extended defects in polycrystalline silicon

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Abstract
The analysis of the dependence of the diffusion length of minority carriers on the microstructure in polycrystalline silicon has been extended by considering the influence of oxygen and carbon. These impurities are in fact known to have a definite effect on the electrical activity of dislocations and grain boundaries (GB). The results of this analysis show that a term of the type ND(NO-NC), where N D is the dislocation density and NO, NC are the concentration of oxygen and carbon, respectively, well accounts for the influence of oxygen and carbon on the diffusion length of minority carriers. Oxygen and carbon, therefore, affect only marginally the recombination losses at GB in polycrystalline silicon, whose average diffusion length is determined almost exclusively by dislocations