Inhomogeneous defect activation by rapid thermal processes in silicon

Abstract
In silicon, rapid thermal processes are observed to induce recombination centers whose distribution as a function of the depth below the surfaces shows an extremum towards the middle of 1000‐μm‐thick samples. This nonhomogeneous defect activation is correlated to a surface effect. Impurity‐related complexes are believed to be the origin of these recombination centers.