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Electrical characterization of alpha-particle irradiation-induced defects in germanium

Dissertation (MSc)--University of Pretoria, 2017.

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Other Authors: Meyer, W.E. (Walter Ernst)
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: University of Pretoria 2018
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author2 Meyer, W.E. (Walter Ernst)
author_browse Meyer, W.E. (Walter Ernst)
author_facet Meyer, W.E. (Walter Ernst)
collection Thesis
dc_rights_str_mv © 2018 University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the University of Pretoria.
description Dissertation (MSc)--University of Pretoria, 2017.
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institution University of Pretoria (South Africa)
language English
last_indexed 2026-06-10T12:37:34.848Z
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provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from UPSpace — University of Pretoria Institutional Repository
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spelling oai:repository.up.ac.za:2263/65925 Electrical characterization of alpha-particle irradiation-induced defects in germanium Meyer, W.E. (Walter Ernst) u10688112@tuks.co.za Auret, F.D. (Francois Danie) Barnard, Abraham Willem UCTD Dissertation (MSc)--University of Pretoria, 2017. Recent advances in semiconductor growth techniques have led to the production of high quality Ge that plays a vital role in the fabrication of electrical devices. Germanium (Ge) is mainly used as a detector material being highly sensitive to X-rays, gamma rays and ionizing radiation, and also shows promise for high speed applications. However, the performance of the devices is strongly influenced by radiation damage. Antimony (Sb), being one of the most common dopants in Ge semiconductor devices, forms the well-known Sb-vacancy complex, also known as the E-center, when the fabricated device is exposed to high energy particle radiation. In this study, the defects induced by high energy alpha-particle irradiation were investigated by means of deep level transient spectroscopy (DLTS). Previous studies found that the DLTS peak traditionally ascribed to the E-center anneals out in two steps, with the first step at room temperature and the second at about 390 K. Possible explanations in the literature for this behavior include interstitials being released by other defects annealing out reacting with the Sb-vacancy. In this study, we have shown that, contrary to previous theories, the DLTS peak that was assigned to the E-center consists of two peaks relating to two defects of similar nature. The peaks were resolved using two techniques: Laplace-DLTS with manual input of regularization parameters and a technique referred to as subtraction of transients. It was found that the peak annealing at high temperatures corresponded to the well-known E-center while the peak annealing at lower temperatures was a new defect which was denoted the E’. Using these techniques, it was shown that, although the two defects had very similar emission characteristics (DLTS signatures: E-center was determined to have an ionization enthalpy of 0.0370±0.005 eV with an apparent capture cross section of 7.9 × 10?15 cm2 while the corresponding values for the E’ were 0.0375±0.005 eV and 6.2 × 10?15 cm2). Other properties of the defects differed significantly, for instance the true capture cross sections at T ? ? were 2.2 × 10?15 cm2 and 1.0 × 10?13 cm2 respectively and the capture barriers were 0.043 eV and 0.092 eV. The annealing activation energy of the E-center was 1.05 eV and that of the E’ was 0.73 eV with frequency factors of 2.5 × 109 s?1 and 2.7 × 108 s?1 respectively. Furthermore, the study showed that the defects had significantly different introduction kinetics, mainly a linear introduction rate for the E-center and the E’ introduced quadratically and being dependent on the introduction and presence of another defect. It is believed that the evidence presented in this study provides conclusive proof for the existence of an up to now unobserved defect in Ge which has up to now been confused with the well-known E-center. Physics MSc Unrestricted 2018-07-25T09:00:58Z 2018-07-25T09:00:58Z 2018/04/18 2017 Dissertation Barnard, AW 2017, Electrical characterization of alpha-particle irradiation-induced defects in germanium, MSc Dissertation, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, viewed yymmdd <http://hdl.handle.net/2263/65925> A2018 http://hdl.handle.net/2263/65925 en © 2018 University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the University of Pretoria. application/pdf University of Pretoria
spellingShingle UCTD
Electrical characterization of alpha-particle irradiation-induced defects in germanium
title Electrical characterization of alpha-particle irradiation-induced defects in germanium
title_full Electrical characterization of alpha-particle irradiation-induced defects in germanium
title_fullStr Electrical characterization of alpha-particle irradiation-induced defects in germanium
title_full_unstemmed Electrical characterization of alpha-particle irradiation-induced defects in germanium
title_short Electrical characterization of alpha-particle irradiation-induced defects in germanium
title_sort electrical characterization of alpha particle irradiation induced defects in germanium
topic UCTD
url http://hdl.handle.net/2263/65925