Two classes of defect recombination behaviour in silicon as studied by SEM‐EBIC

Electron‐beam‐induced current investigations using variation of temperature and beam current are applied to study NiSi2 particles and 60° misfit dislocations. The recombination activity of NiSi2 particles increases with temperature and has a beam‐current dependence influenced by the doping level, with negative slope for low doping. Usually, the misfit dislocations increase their activity upon sample cooling, but in few cases the opposite behaviour was found as well. The results are discussed in terms of two classes of recombination activity controlled by defect charging/deep levels or by shallow centres.