Revised identification of Ag-related defects in silver-doped Si by deep-level transient spectroscopy

In the present study, we re-examine the electronic levels of silver-related defects in Si by deep-level transient spectroscopy (DLTS) and Laplace DLTS. We show that dominant Ag-related defects previously assigned to substitutional Ag could be only observed after annealing at 700 °C in our samples, and their appearance strongly depends on doping and post-annealing treatments conditions. The hydrogenation of the annealed Si samples leads to the appearance of several AgH-related defects. By analyzing the depth profiles of the defects, we attribute them to AgH-related complexes with one and two H atoms. From the analysis of the capture cross section and the electric field dependence, the charge state of the defects is also determined. We discuss the origin of the defects.