The self-interstitial in germanium

A Carvalho, R Jones, C Janke, JP Goss, PR Briddon, J Coutinho and S Öberg
Physical Review Letters
99
175502
4
2007

Low temperature radiation damage in n- and p-type Ge is strikingly different, reflecting the charge dependent properties of vacancies and self-interstitials. We find, using density functional theory, that in Ge the interstitial is bistable, preferring a split configuration when neutral and an open cage configuration when positively charged. The split configuration is inert while the cage configuration acts as a double donor. We evaluate the migration energies of the defects and show that the theory is able to explain the principal results of low-temperature electron-irradiation experiments.

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