The effect of pulsed magnetic fields on Cz-Si crystals

It has been established that short-term effects of pulsed magnetic fields initiate long-term low-temperature decay of a supersaturated solid solution of oxygen in silicon crystals grown by the Czochralski method (Cz-Si), which results in the generation of oxygen-containing defects in the form of O-V centers and more complicated SixOyVz complexes, where V is a vacancy. The process of defect formation after the action of the pulsed magnetic fields culminates in the formation of spatially ordered oxygen-vacancy clusters and/or the precipitation of oxide phases, depending on the original defects present in the crystal. The action of such fields also initiates crystallization of an amorphized layer when it is present on the surface of the original crystal. The detected effects are characterized by a threshold field strength, are accumulate with successive pulses, and reach saturation in terms of these parameters of the action. The effects induced in Cz-Si crystals by pulsed magnetic fields are analyzed in terms of a possible cause consisting of the excitation of the Si-O bond of an interstitial oxygen by nonequilibrium population of the vibrational levels of a metastable electronic term of the bond.