Annealing of Electron Bombardment Damage in Silicon Crystals

Silicon crystals were bombarded at room temperature with electrons of 700 kev from a Van de Graaff accelerator. The annealing of the bombardment damage was studied between 200^∘{}C and 400^∘{}C by observing the recovery of the minority-carrier lifetime. The annealing was found to proceed with an activation energy of 1.3 ev. This is interpreted as being the activation energy associated with the lattice jump frequency.The kinetics of the annealing are identical in most p-type and n-type crystals. A second-order process has been identified toward the end of the annealing. Evidence is given that crystalline defects can influence the annealing kinetics.