Charge effect on the irradiation damage of silicon: Insights from phase-field simulation

Abstract We have developed a phase-field model to analyze the evolution of irradiation-induced lattice defects and variation of electrical properties of intrinsic single-crystal silicon by taking account of the charge effect on the formation energies of vacancies and interstitials. Significant difference in vacancy concentration at a long irradiation time has been found by comparing the defect behavior with and without charge. The simulated results indicate a critical carrier production rate at which the lattice defects kinetics speeds up obviously and thus leads to a higher vacancy concentration. The electrostatic potential and carrier density increase as more carriers are generated, which in turn would have important impact on the device performance.