Charged Semiconductor Defects: Structure, Thermodynamics and Diffusion

Defects in semiconductors have been studied for many years, in many cases with a view toward controlling their behaviour through various forms of “defect engineering”. For example, in the bulk, charging significantly affects the total concentration of defects that are available to mediate phenomena such as solid-state diffusion. Surface defects play an important role in mediating surface mass transport during high temperature processing steps such as epitaxial film deposition, diffusional s...