Jahn-Teller-Distorted Nitrogen Donor in Laser-Annealed Silicon

Substitutional nitrogen donors in single-crystal silicon have been produced by pulsed ruby-laser annealing of amorphous silicon created by 4×${10}^{15}$ 160-keV (0.995 ${}_{}{}^{28}{}_{}{}^{}\mathrm{Si}_{}^{+}{}_{}{}^{}$ + 0.005 ${}_{}{}^{14}{}_{}{}^{}\mathrm{N}_2^{+}{}_{}{}^{}$)/${\mathrm{cm}}^2$. EPR measurements indicate that these isolated N donors are trigonally distorted as a result of Jahn-Teller effects and give rise to deep donor levels with an ionization energy of ≈ 0.58 eV. They are similar in electronic structure to N donors in diamond and appear to undergo structural modification for $T\gtrsim 430°$C.