Enhanced Gold Solubility Effect in Heavily n-Type Silicon

Using radiotracer methods, a study has been made of the increased gold solubility in uniformly heavily n‐doped silicon. Data for both phosphorus and arsenic showing gold solubility as a function of doping is presented. The gold solubility at 1000°C begins to increase substantially for concentrations of donor impurity in the range 10 19 cm −3 , although a difference in this increase between arsenic doping and phosphorus doping was noted. The data was related quantitatively to an ion pairing model which appeared to best explain the results.