Photocarrier Radiometry Investigation of Light-Induced Degradation of Boron-Doped Czochralski-Grown Silicon Without Surface Passivation

Abstract

Light-induced degradation (LID) effects of boron-doped Cz silicon wafers without surface passivation are investigated in details by photocarrier radiometry (PCR). The resistivity of all samples is in the range of $0.006~\Omega {\cdot } \hbox {cm}$ to $38~\Omega {\cdot } \hbox {cm}$. It is found that light-induced changes in surface state occupation have a great effect on LID under illumination. With the increasing contribution of light-induced changes in surface state occupation, the generation rate of the defect decreases. The light-induced changes in surface state occupation and light-induced degradation dominate the temporal behaviors of the excess carrier density of high- and low-resistivity Si wafers, respectively. Moreover, the temporal behaviors of PCR signals of these samples under laser illumination with different powers, energy of photons, and multiple illuminations were also analyzed to understand the light-induced change of material properties. Based on the nonlinear dependence of PCR signal on the excitation power, a theoretical model taking into account both light-induced changes in surface state occupation and LID processes was proposed to explain those temporal behaviors.