Minority-carrier lifetime in gold-diffused silicon at high carrier concentrations

In this paper the influence of gold doping in n- and p-type silicon on the minority-carrier lifetime is investigated for majority-carrier concentrations between 1017 and 1019 cm−3. In p-Si the data can be explained by two recombination mechanisms: recombination via the Au acceptor (Shockley-Read-Hall, SRH) and band-to-band Auger recombination. In n-Si a third mechanism with a probability ∼n occurs which is ascribed to the hole capture of the Au donor by an Auger process. The observed temperature dependence of the lifetime in the SRH region deviates considerably from Bemski’s results; however, it agrees well with recent data of Wu et al.