Thermal donors in silicon: oxygen clusters or self-interstitial aggregates

There is a long-standing view that small aggregates of oxygen impurities in silicon produced by heat treatments at 450 degrees C are the defects that act as thermal donors. Recently it has been established that these treatments also lead to the generation of self-interstitials. It is now suggested that small aggregates of these intrinsic defects should alternately be considered as the complexes giving the donor properties.