Recombination activity of nickel in Czochralski silicon during rapid thermal process

The recombination activity of nickel in p- and n-type Czochralski silicon after rapid thermal process (RTP) in N2, O2 or Ar ambient has been investigated by the microwave photoconductivity decay technique. The effective lifetime of silicon decreases monotonically with increasing nickel in-diffusion temperature, and exhibits a step-like behavior at nickel in-diffusion temperature of 900 °C, which indicates that most of nickel atoms precipitate in the bulk no matter what kind of conducting type if the annealing temperature is above 900 °C under RTP. It is also found that the ambient during RTP almost has no effect on the recombination activity of nickel in silicon, which suggests point defects almost have no influence on the nickel precipitation.