Annealing kinetics of boron-containing centers in electron-irradiated silicon

The annealing kinetics of B (i) O (i) pairs created by fast-electron irradiation in Si wafers is studied. The wafers are grown by the Czochralski method and doped with boron to different levels. It is found that, at a particular temperature, the annealing rate steadily increases with increasing boron concentration. The results are described with a simple model that takes into consideration the interaction of interstitial boron atoms with oxygen atoms and substitutional boron atoms. In the context of the model, the temperature dependence of the dissociation rate of the B (i) O (i) complex is calculated.