Deep centers introduced by argon ion bombardment in n-type silicon

Platinum-silicon Schottky diodes on epitaxial layers have been subjected to argon ion bombardment, prior to metal evaporation, with doses in the 10¹⁴ ions/cm² range and with energies between 1 and 3.5 KeV. By transient capacitance technique four electron traps have been found. The oxygen-vacancy pair (O-V) located at 0.17 eV below the conduction band, the double negatively charged divacancy (V-V⁼) at 0.23 eV and the phosphorous-vacancy pair (P-V) at 0.44 eV are observed. One more unknown level at 0.36 eV which could be oxygen-related is also found.