Effect of enhanced pressure during annealing on the creation of defects in electron-irradiated silicon

The defect structure of electron-irradiated Czochralski-grown silicon (electron doses 1018-1021 m−2, at 2.5 MeV) was found to change during high-temperature annealing under hydrostatic pressures up to 1.2 GPa with treated samples showing a retardation of oxygen precipitation in the lattice. This likely arises from the formation of radiation-induced defects such as VO and VO2, as well as the effect of the applied pressure on both the concentration and diffusivity of oxygen and silicon interstitials that occur within the temperature range of 1070-1400 K.