Photoluminescence characterization of non-radiative defect density on silicon surfaces and interfaces at room temperature

Room temperature photoluminescence resulting from radiative interband recom bination (1.1 mu m) in c-Si excited by of XeCl or N-2 laser pulses is studi ed experimentally and theoretically. Numerical simulations show that the qu antum yield of PL of passivated c-Si wafers excited with the energy density 1-3 mJ/cm(2) reaches a maximal value of 3% for c-Si wafer with the bulk li fetime of 2.5 ms. Simulated transients of PL fit very well to the experimen tally observed ones, and allow an evaluation of the density of surface non- radiative defects. The exponential part of the PL transient is sensitive to the surface defect densities in the range from 10(8) to 10(12) cm(-2). The total yield of PL is practically reciprocal to the density of surface defe cts in the range from 10(10) to 10(14) cm(-2). These inferences have been u sed to obtain the densities of surface non-radiative defects for c-Si wafer s irradiated with the laser pulses of energy densities near the melting thr eshold of c-Si. (C) 2000 Published by Elsevier Science S.A.