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Updated: Jul 19, 2026

Comprehensive Characterization of Extended Defects in Semiconductor Materials by a Scanning Electron Microscope
Published on: May 28, 2016
E center in silicon has a donor level in the band gap
A Nylandsted Larsen1, A Mesli, K Bonde Nielsen
1Institute of Physics and Astronomy, University of Aarhus, DK-8000 Aarhus C, Denmark.
Abstract:
It has been an accepted fact for more than 40 years that the E center in Si (the group-V impurity--vacancy pair)--one of the most studied defects in semiconductors--has only one energy level in the band gap: namely, the acceptor level at about 0.45 eV below the conduction band. We now demonstrate that it has a second level, situated in the lower half of the band gap at 0.27 eV above the valence band. The existence of this level, having a donor character, is disclosed by a combination of different transient-capacitance techniques and electronic-structure calculations. The finding seriously questions some diffusion-modeling approaches performed in the past.
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