Tq. Zhou et al., ENHANCED SURFACE-INTERFACE RECOMBINATION AND SURFACE INVERSION OF NI DECORATED SI SI(GE)/SI HETEROSTRUCTURES/, Journal of applied physics, 73(12), 1993, pp. 8412-8418
Electron beam induced current variations in images of strain relaxed e
pitaxial Si/Si(Ge)/Si wafers deliberately contaminated with nickel fro
m the backside are reported for different contamination levels. Strong
recombination contrast due to NiSi2 precipitates was observed both at
the top Si surface and along buried interfacial misfit dislocations.
A surface conductivity inversion from n to p type was obtained for the
high level Ni contaminated sample. A theoretical analysis based on th
e presence of a surface potential due either to a metal-silicon Schott
ky contact, or to the accumulation of charged traps is used to explain
the observed effects.