Deep-level transient spectroscopy studies of the interstitial carbon defect in silicon

We report deep-level transient spectroscopy studies of the carbon interstitial (Cᵢ) defect created in boron-doped silicon after electron irradiation at 80 K. The peak amplitudes of Cᵢ have been seen to vary in the spectrum under different bias annealing conditions. The phenomenon is tentatively attributed to the tendency of the Cᵢ defect to annihilate the vacancy of the boron substitutional--vacancy (B-V) pair. This tendency is particularly favored by the charge states of the present defects when cooling the sample with applied reverse bias.