Light-induced point defect reactions of residual iron in crystalline silicon after aluminum gettering

Deep level transient spectroscopy is used to study light-induced reactions of residual iron impurities after aluminum gettering (AlG) in crystalline silicon. White-light illumination at room temperature leads to the formation of a defect which is associated with a donor level at 0.33 eV above the valence band. This defect is stable up to about 175 °C where it dissociates reversibly in case of small iron concentrations and irreversibly for high iron concentrations. Since marker experiments using gold and platinum diffusion show a high vacancy concentration after AlG a tentative identification of the new defect as the metastable iron-vacancy pair is proposed.