Electrical and optical properties of rod-like defects in silicon

Self-interstitials in silicon can aggregate to form rod-like defects (RLDs) having both electrical and optical activity. We carry out local density functional calculations for both {113} and {111} RLDs to determine their structures and electrical activity. We find that small {113} RLDs are more stable than {111} RLDs but this reverses for larger defects. We attribute the electrical activity of {113} RLDs found in deep level transient spectroscopy studies with the bounding dislocations and the 0.903 eV photoluminescence to vacancy point defects lying on the habit plane.