A method of scanning mid-IR-laser microscopy has recently been proposed forthe investigation of large-scale electrically and recombination-active defectsin semiconductors and non-destructive inspection of semiconductor materials andstructures in the industries of microelectronics and photovoltaics. The basisfor this development was laid with a wide cycle of investigations on low-anglemid-IR-light scattering in semiconductors. The essence of the technical ideawas to apply the dark-field method for spatial filtering of the scattered lightin the scanning mid-IR-laser microscope together with the local photoexcitationof excess carriers within a small domain in a studied sample, thus forming anartificial source of scattering of the probe IR light for the recombinationcontrast imaging of defects. The current paper presents three contrasting examples of application of theabove technique for defect visualization in silicon-based materials designedfor photovoltaics and photonics which demonstrate that this technique might bean efficient tool for both defect investigation and industrial testing ofsemiconducting materials.
展开▼
