Nickel solubility in intrinsic and doped silicon

Solubility of nickel in intrinsic, moderately, and heavily doped n-type and p-type silicon was determined using instrumental neutron activation analysis. The solubility data for intrinsic silicon were found to be in good agreement with the literature data. In heavily doped p-type silicon the enhancement of nickel solubility, if present, was close to the error margins of the experiment, indicating that interstitial nickel is predominantly neutral in silicon and suggesting that its donor level lies close to the valence band edge, if not within the valence band itself. No dependence of nickel solubility on doping level of the samples was observed in n-type silicon. This is consistent with the model reported in the literature of two acceptor levels of substitutional nickel located in the upper half of the band gap, one of the levels close to the conduction band edge. Consequently, unlike copper or iron, nickel does not segregate in heavily p-type or n-type doped areas of silicon wafers.

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