Identification of a boron-oxygen complex as the origin of a non-radiative recombination process in silicon photodetectors and solar cells (Conference Presentation)

For 40 years it has been deduced that the presence of Boron and Oxygen in silicon causes the formation of a non-radiative recombination centre, without any consensus as to its exact nature. Here we report the observation, using deep level transient spectroscopy and photoluminescence of the conversion of a deep boron-di-oxygen-related donor trapping state into a shallow acceptor under the action of light or injected carriers. Using ab initio modelling, we propose structures of the B-O2 defect which match the experimental findings. Implications of the presence of this defect, particularly on its deep donor (carrier trapping) configuration, on silicon photodetectors is discussed.