Impurity dependence of the low temperature annealing in n-type germanium

Lightly doped n-type Ge, irradiated at liquid He temperatures with 1 MeV electrons, exhibits a large thermal recovery stage at 50–70°K. We have found that the rate at which this stage anneals depends on the type of group V impurity used to dope the sample. We Propose that impurity complexes are involved in this annealing stage. We have also observed the same impurity dependence when this annealing stage is destroyed by radiation annealing at liquid He temperatures. This suggests that one of the defects produced during irradiation is free to migrate at very low temperatures.