Diffusion of Group V Impurity in Silicon

Diffusion coefficients of group V impurities and the E-centers in silicon are calculated, using Lidiard's method and taking account of the experimental results for the reorientation of the E-center axis of Watkins et al. It is found that the activation energy for the diffusion of the impurity is given by the sum of the migration and the formation energies of the E-center, E E and ( E f - E b ), where E f is the formation energy of the vacancy and E b is the binding energy of the impurity and the vacancy. E b , calculated from the above relation, does not change with the tetrahedral covalent radius of the impurity and an approximate value of it is 1.5±0.6 eV. Lower limit of E f , 4.3±0.2 eV, is also obtained, being satisfied by E f =4.17±0.6 eV obtained from the experiments of the dissociative diffusion of nickel and gold in silicon by the author.