Effect of oxygen on minority-carrier lifetime and recombination currents in Si1−xGex heterostructure devices

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Abstract
A p+‐i‐n diode structure is presented which is suitable for determining the recombination lifetime in thin Si1−xGex layers grown on Si. Electrical measurements and computer simulations are used to extract carrier lifetimes in Si1−xGex layers with various oxygen concentrations. The minority‐carrier lifetime increases dramatically as the oxygen concentration in the Si1−xGex decreases from 3×1020 to less than 3×1017 cm−3. Lifetimes extracted from the p+‐i‐n diodes are consistent with those obtained from measurements on heterojunction bipolar transistors with high oxygen concentrations in the Si1−xGex base.