Involvement of oxygen-vacancy defects in enhancing oxygen diffusion in silicon

Abstract
We have proposed previously that the extremely high rate of single diffusion jumps of oxygen atoms in silicon during electron irradiation of crystals above 300 °C is due to the sequential trapping and detrapping of vacancies. In support of this proposal we now demonstrate thermal dissociation of up to 75% of oxygen-vacancy centers by monitoring their destruction in irradiated and annealed crystals. An important new step is the calibration of the strength of the infrared 830 cm−1 absorption band via a novel procedure to give the concentration of oxygen-vacancy complexes in crystals.