The vacancy-interstitial pair in electron irradiated germanium

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Abstract
We have studied the influence of the nature and concentration of donor impurity on the 65°K and 35°K stages in electron irradiated n-type germanium. Because the nature of the impurity does not influence the 65°K stage and because this stage is present alone in lightly doped samples, we confirm that it is associated with the annihilation of a vacancy-interstitial pair. Because the 35°K stage is directly connected to the impurity concentration, and not to the free electron concentration, we conclude that it is associated with the annihilation of a vacancy and interstitial-impurity pair. We have shown that the annihilation of the vacancy-interstitial pair occurs through the interstitial mobility at 65°K, 27°K and 4.5°K depending on its charge state, and that the interstitial-impurity mobility occurs at 35°K. Our model explains easily the radiation annealing, the behavior of irradiated p-type germanium and can be extended to the case of indium antimonide and perhaps of silicon.