Determination of the Boron and Phosphorus Ionization Energies in Compensated Silicon by Temperature-Dependent Luminescence

The determination of boron and phosphorus ionization energies in compensated silicon is very important for assessing the ionization level of dopants and their interaction with each other. In this paper, we achieved the boron and phosphorus ionization energies in compensated silicon by temperature-dependent luminescence for the first time. The results show that the boron and phosphorus ionization energies in heavily-compensated silicon have the same values as those in non-compensated silicon. This strongly suggests that both boron and phosphorus impurities with a concentration of ≤ 10 17 cm −3 should act as isolated acceptors and donors, but do not form complexes in silicon.