Electronic Defect in Silicon Induced by Excimer Laser Irradiation

Abstract

The effects of laser-induced damage on silicon photodiodes or charge-coupled devices (CCDs) have been studied by several research groups in the past decade. The researches show that the electrical resistance changes in silicon by laser heating and laser-induced damages. Though the heat effect by plasma gas absorption is the most common failure mechanism under high power laser irradiation, the electronic defects induced by high energy short pulsed laser could be another source of the damage causing the failure of electronic devices. To study electronic defect formation, low energy of IR laser is insufficient to clarify the alteration of electronic structure. In this work, the excimer laser with 193 nm wavelength was employed to generate the electronic defects in p-type silicon wafer. The electron spin resonance (ESR) measurements were carried out with silicon and laser-induced silicon wafers to analyze the structural change and induced defects. Also, the Raman analysis was applied to detect the medium range structural variation.