The effect of the electron transfer process between the bulk and surface of ZnO upon oxygen sorption was investigated by measuring the changes of the following ESR parameters: the spin densities of the g = 1.96 and g ~ 2.0 signals, the intensity of a Mn2+ reference sample, and the crystal current of... (Read more)

A brief description of the dc and rf diode sputtering unit is first presented. The study of properties of the films is reviewed taking into consideration two main parameters, oxygen partial pressure and substrate temperature. Reflection electron diffraction and x-ray diffraction studies show that... (Read more)

Amorphous SiOx-layers with O < x < 2 have been prepared by evaporation of Si at oxygen pressures of 10−6 … 10−3 mbar. The composition of the samples was determined by proton backscattering. The band gap, derived from optical measurements, increases with rising oxygen... (Read more)

The ESR P_b center has been observed in thermally oxidized single-crystal silicon wafers, and compared with oxide fixed charge Q_ss and oxidation-induced interface states N_st. The P_b center is found to be located... (Read more)

Interface states and electron spin resonance centers have been observed and compared in thermally oxidized (111) and (100) silicon wafers subjected to various processing treatments. The ESR P_b signal, previously assigned to interface ·SiSi₃ defects on (111)... (Read more)

Electron spin resonance measurements have been made on gamma-irradiated (111) Si/SiO₂ structures as a function of bias across the oxide. We observe a large change in the density of radiation-induced paramagnetic P_b centers with bais. We conclude that... (Read more)

On unannealed, thermally oxidized silicon, electron spin resonance reveals an oriented interface defect which is termed the P_b center and identified as the trivalent silicon defect. Deep level transient spectroscopy (DLTS) reveals two broad characteristic peaks in the... (Read more)

A review is given on the diffusion, solubility and electrical activity of 3d transition metals in silicon. Transition elements (especially, Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, and Cu) diffuse interstitially and stay in the interstitial site in thermal equilibrium at the diffusion temperature. The parameters of the liquidus curves are identical for the Si:Ti — Si:Ni melts, indicating comparable silicon-metal interaction for all these elements. Only Cr, Mn, and Fe could be identified in undisturbed interstitial sites after quenching, the others precipitated or formed complexes. The 3d elements can be divided into two groups according to the respective enthalpy of formation of the solid solution. The distinction can arise from different charge states of these impurities at the diffusion temperature. For the interstitial 3d atoms remaining after quenching, reliable energy levels are established from the literature and compared with recent calculations. (Read more)

Energy distribution of P_b centers (·SiSi₃) and electronic traps (D_it) at the Si/SiO₂ interface in metal-oxide-silicon (MOS) structures was examined by electric-field-controlled electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR)... (Read more)

We find that two paramagnetic ``trivalent silicon'' centers appear to be primarily responsible for radiation damage in metal-oxide-silicon structures. Applied Physics Letters is copyrighted by The American Institute of Physics. ... (Read more)

The band-gap energy distribution of P_b centers on oxidized (100) Si wafers has been determined and compared with interface electrical trap density D_it. Two different P_b centers are observed on (100) Si: P_b0,... (Read more)

Microwave-Hall-effect (MHE) and electrical conductivity measurement techniques can now be used to obtain absolute values of the electrical properties of semiconductor powders under different controlled conditions. A commercial ESR spectrometer was modified to conduct MHE experiments and a network... (Read more)

We report electron-spin-resonance measurements on zinc-blende GaN. The observed resonance has an isotropic g value of 1.9533±0.0008 independent of temperature, a Lorentzian line shape, and a linewidth (18 G at 10 K) which depends on temperature. The spin-lattice relaxation time at 10 K was... (Read more)

Single crystal GaN thin films resulting from various deposition techniques are usually dominated by residual donors. To date, the true nature of this donor conduction is not known. Nitrogen vacancies, residual oxygen, and growth defects are cited as potential causes for the residual n-type... (Read more)

Hole trapping in the oxides thermally grown on different polytypes of SiC (3C, 4H, 6H) was studied using photogeneration of charge carriers in SiO₂ and electron-spin-resonance spectroscopy. Oxygen vacancy defects were found to be the dominant hole traps in the oxide. Generation of... (Read more)

Electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) measurements of Si/SiO₂ systems began over 30 years ago. Most EPR studies of Si/SiO₂ systems have dealt with two families of defects: P_b centers and E centers. Several variants from each group have... (Read more)

N-type silicon doped with gold and lithium was investigated by Electron Paramagnetic Resonance (EPR) and Deep Level Transient Spectroscopy (DLTS), using two sets of samples with different defect concentrations of both gold and lithium. Photoluminescence (PL) on both sets of samples allowed to... (Read more)

Deep centers in n-type 4H–SiC and 6H–SiC irradiated with 8 MeV protons have been investigated by capacitance spectroscopy and electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR). Samples were fabricated by sublimation epitaxy or commercially produced by CREE Inc. Research Triangle Park, NC. It is... (Read more)

We show that Cat-CVD silicon nitride films contain more than 1019 cm−3 nitrogen-bonded Si dangling bonds, similarly to the case for conventional CVD films. However, the charge-trapping behavior of the Cat-CVD films is found to be quite different, in spite of the same origin for the dominant... (Read more)

The yellow luminescence band in high-energy 7 MeV electron-irradiated n-GaN is investigated as a function of electron irradiation dose. Both the yellow-band intensity and the near-bandedge photoluminescence (PL) intensity decrease continually with increasing electron irradiation dose. The decrease... (Read more)

GaN community has recently recognized that it is imperative that the extended, and point defects in GaN and related materials, and the mechanisms for their formation are understood. This is a first and an important step, which must be followed by defect reduction before full implementation of this... (Read more)

Electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) and optically detected magnetic resonance (ODMR) experiments have been performed on a set of GaN epitaxial layers doped with Mg from 2.5?10¹⁸ to 5.0?10¹⁹ cm^-3. The samples were also characterized by secondary-ion-mass... (Read more)

Optical injection of electron-hole pairs in 3–5 nm thick layers of SiO₂, Al₂O₃, ZrO₂ and their stacks on (100)Si is found to result in positive oxide charging, suggesting trapping of holes. In thin layers of the high-permittivity metal oxides... (Read more)

The electronic properties of the (100) Si/SiO₂ interfacial defect called P_b1 are quite controversial. We present electron spin resonance measurements that demonstrate: (1) that the P_b1 defects have levels in the silicon band gap, (2) that... (Read more)

We report electron spin resonance (ESR) observation of interface defects at the HfO₂/(111)Si boundary for HfO₂ films deposited via atomic layer chemical vapor deposition using Hf(NO₃)₄ as a precursor. We observe several signals, dominated by one due to a... (Read more)

Two paramagnetic intrinsic defects P and ND1 have been studied in both C-rich n-type 4H-SiC and undoped semi-insulating (s.i.) 4H-SiC in the dark and under illumination of the s.i. sample with light at 140 and 37 GHz in the temperature interval from 4.2 to 77 K. Photo EPR and Hall effect... (Read more)

Interface defects generated by negative-bias temperature stress (NBTS) in an ultrathin plasma- nitrided SiON/Si(100) system were characterized by using D₂ annealing, conductance-frequency measurements, and electron-spin resonance measurements. D₂ annealing was shown to lower... (Read more)

We observed two paramagnetic defects in thin films of HfO₂ on silicon with electron spin resonance. Both appear after photoinjecting electrons into the dielectric. Strong spectroscopic evidence links one spectrum to an O2^-" align="middle"> defect. A second spectrum is... (Read more)

Interfacial defect structures of NO-nitride oxide on Si(100) were characterized by electron spin resonance spectroscopy. We confirmed that the effective g values of the P_b1 center are affected by interfacial nitridation even at a small nitrogen concentration of 5 at. %, while those of the P_b0 center proved to be unchanged. We observed that the shifted P_b1 line appeared gradually with interfacial nitrogen concentration, which suggests that the nitrogen-induced modified structure substitutes for the original P_b1 structure. Angular variations of the shifted P_b1 lines were also significantly different from those of pure oxide. Based on our analysis, we attributed the g value shift of the P_b1 center to dangling bond tilting, caused by the displacement of nearest-neighbor Si atoms. (Read more)

Interface defects related to negative-bias temperature instability (NBTI) in an ultrathin plasma-nitrided SiON/ Si<100> system were characterized by using conductance–frequency measurements, electron-spin resonance measure- ments, and synchrotron radiation X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. It was confirmed that NBTI is reduced by using D₂-annealing instead of the usual H₂-annealing. Interfacial Si dangling bonds (P_b1 and P_b0 centers) were detected in a sample subjected to negative-bias temperature stress (NBTS). Although we suggest that NBTS also generates non-Pb defects, it does not seem to generate nitrogen dangling bonds. These results show that NBTI of the plasma-nitrided SiON/Si system is predominantly due to P_b depassivation. Plasma nitridation was also found to increase the P_b1/P_b0 density ratio, modify the P_b1 defect structure, and increase the latent interface trap density by generating Si suboxides at the interface. These changes are likely to be the causes of NBTI in ultrathin plasma-nitrided SiON/Si systems. (Read more)

An electron spin resonance (ESR) method is applied to a pentacene field-effect device to investigate gate-induced hole carriers in such devices. Clear field-induced ESR signals are observed, demonstrating that all of the field-injected carriers have S=1/2 spins. Anisotropic ESR signals due to... (Read more)

The influence of Hf-based dielectrics on the underlying SiO₂ interfacial layer (IL) in high-k gate stacks is investigated. An increase in the IL dielectric constant, which correlates to an increase of the positive fixed charge density in the IL, is found to depend on the starting,... (Read more)

Low pressure chemical vapor deposition of Si₃N₄ on oxidized Si (111) surfaces causes a change in the properties of the dominant interface defect, the P_b center, observed by electron paramagnetic resonance. The change in the signature of the... (Read more)