Light-Induced-Degradation effects in boron–phosphorus compensated n-type Czochralski silicon

This letter focuses on the evolution under illumination of the carrier lifetime in n-type boron–phosphorus compensated Czochralski silicon. Our results show a Light-Induced-Degradation (LID) of the carrier lifetime which we prove to be related to additional boron. The activation energy of the annihilation mechanism for this boron-related defect was found to be 1.7 eV, in agreement with values concerning the annihilation of the BOi2 complex responsible for the LID of boron-doped p-type silicon. This strongly suggests that BOi2 are also responsible for the degradation of n-type boron–phosphorus compensated silicon unlike what was expected from previous studies on compensated p-type silicon.