Effect of copper on dislocation luminescence centers in silicon

The effect of copper on dislocation luminescence centers in silicon has been investigated using photoluminescence and transmission electron microscopy. It has been demonstrated that there exist two main mechanisms responsible for quenching of dislocation luminescence by the copper impurity. The first mechanism is dominant at high copper concentrations and associated with the decrease in the time of nonradiative recombination of nonequilibrium charge carriers due to the formation of copper precipitates in silicon. This leads to the quenching of the entire dislocation luminescence and the edge exciton luminescence. The second mechanism is associated with the interaction of individual copper atoms with deep dislocation centers D1/D2, which results in the passivation of the recombination activity of these centers. This mechanism takes place even at room temperature and is highly effective at low copper concentrations.