A study of irradiation-induced defects in silicon using low temperature photoluminescence

Irradiation-induced defects in silicon, using low temperature photoluminescence as a probe of defect properties were investigated. The goal of this research was to gain new understanding of defects which degrade solar cell characteristics in a radiation environment. In this regard, an important aspect of this program was a study of radiation damage and annealing in lithium doped silicon, which is useful in reducing solar cell degradation. Luminescence was used to study defects because this property reveals electron transitions through a number of defect energy levels at any given annealing stage; the luminescence spectra give excellent resolution of many defect energy levels, and these measurements can be used to give defect symmetry in the lattice, impurity dependence, and annealing properties.