Close spatial correlation and chemical effects in annealing of paramagnetic oxygen vacancies (E′1 centers) in ion-implanted amorphous SiO2

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Abstract
Electron paramagnetic resonance has been used to study the isochronal and isothermal irreversible annealing of E1 defects induced in amorphous SiO2 by implantation of He+, N+, O+, and Bi+ ions. The annealing behavior observed is successfully compared to predictions based on two models for diffusion‐limited thermally activated processes: a simple model of a first‐order unimolecular recombination, and Simpson and Sosin’s model for bimolecular recombination of closely spatially correlated Frenkel pairs. In both cases it has been assumed that the diffusion process is controlled by a Gaussian distribution of the activation energy for diffusion. It is shown that both models offer a consistent interpretation of the annealing behavior observed, indicating that for the temperature range between 500–800 °C, the irreversible thermal annealing of E’1 defects in ion‐implanted amorphous SiO2 is controlled by unimolecular recombination. A new enhanced annealing effect has been observed in amorphous SiO2 implanted with chemically active N+ and O+ impurities.