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Deep centers in semiconductors
JOurnal of Luminescence 36 (1986) 63—64 North-Holland, Amsterdam
63
BOOK REVIEW DEEP CENTERS IN SEMICONDUCTORS (ed. S.T. Pantelides) [Gordon and Breach, New York, 1986, 797 pp. + index, ISBN 2881241093, $95.00.] GA. BARAFF A.T. & T. Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill, NJ, USA.
Progress in understanding the structure and dynamics of specific defects in semiconductors has, for the most part, been achieved only slowly, For that reason, a good up-to-date account of our understanding of the details of any specific defect is likely to be timely for many years to come. This massive and masterful book consists of a collection of many such accounts, and should be in the library of every serious investigator of deep levels in semiconductors, The editor of the book, Sokrates Pantelides, has been one of the most active contributors to this field in the last decade. In 1981, he was the organizer of the 3rd Lund Conference, an international meeting of theorists and experimentalists who have made significant contributions to the study of deep level defects in semiconductors over the two year period between successive meetings. This book traces back to that 1981 meeting, in that it is, for the most part, a collection of the papers the invited authors would have given had there been sufficient time for them to cover their topics in full and scholarly depth. The authors chosen at that time were uniformly excellent, and their presentations at that meeting were uniformly informative. Because the idea of collecting their work into a single volume (a volume which is not a conference proceedings because the format of the meetings does not allow one) was presented to them only after the conference, many of the authors were able to include post-conference developments in their specific contributions. The editor, moreover, in a long introductory article, has also brought in many specific developments which markedly enhance the timeliness of this work. Timeliness, however is not the criterion by which deep level studies should be measured,
Comprehensiveness and perspective are far more important, and this book can be wholeheartedly recommended on the basis of those criteria as well. A partial list of the chapters and their authors will serve to describe the book in a way that will be most useful to prospective readers. After the introductory article by Pantelides, there follow chapters on chalcogens in silicon by Grimmeiss and Janzen, on the lattice vacancy in silicon by Watkins, on oxygen in GaP by Dean, on EL2 by Martin and Makram-Ebeid, on DX centers by Lang, on iron in Ill—V’s by Bishop, on Cr in GaAs by Allen, and on Cr in Il—Vi’s by Baranowski. Some of these have captured the field at the peak of its maturity, Watkins’ article on the silicon vacancy for example. Very little has been done on this defect, experimentally or theoretically, beyond the material he covers. References to the few significant papers which have appeared more recently are found in Pantelides’ overview. Other articles have.captured the field at the beginning~of a period of turbulent growth, the article on EL2 for example. Martin and Makram-Ebeid provide an encyclopedic account of the experimental situation and of the chaotic understanding of what this fascinating and technologically important defect might be, at least as it was understood in 1983. The number of papers devoted to this defect has doubled or tripled since their article was cornpleted, but at this moment, one cannot be any less skeptical that the defect is understood than were they at the time of writing. Some of the chapters represent fields which had seemed to be understood at the time but which are now undergoing a renaissance as interest returns as a result of more recent experimental work. Lang’s chapter on the
0022-2313/86/$03.50 © Elsevier Science Publishers B.V. (North-Holland Physics Publishing Division)
64
G.A. Baraff / Book review
DX center falls into this category. To understand the modern developments, not all of which may turn out to be endunng one should be thoroughly familiar with the earlier experiments and their interpretation. There is no better source for that understanding than the chapter. in this book. Perhaps the reader would like to see some
criticism of the weak points of the book so that he can judge that this review is an objective one. If so, he will have to get it elsewhere, because this reviewer, who has to judge most strongly in the fields he is most familiar with, has found none that detract from the overall excellence and value of this volume.
63
BOOK REVIEW DEEP CENTERS IN SEMICONDUCTORS (ed. S.T. Pantelides) [Gordon and Breach, New York, 1986, 797 pp. + index, ISBN 2881241093, $95.00.] GA. BARAFF A.T. & T. Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill, NJ, USA.
Progress in understanding the structure and dynamics of specific defects in semiconductors has, for the most part, been achieved only slowly, For that reason, a good up-to-date account of our understanding of the details of any specific defect is likely to be timely for many years to come. This massive and masterful book consists of a collection of many such accounts, and should be in the library of every serious investigator of deep levels in semiconductors, The editor of the book, Sokrates Pantelides, has been one of the most active contributors to this field in the last decade. In 1981, he was the organizer of the 3rd Lund Conference, an international meeting of theorists and experimentalists who have made significant contributions to the study of deep level defects in semiconductors over the two year period between successive meetings. This book traces back to that 1981 meeting, in that it is, for the most part, a collection of the papers the invited authors would have given had there been sufficient time for them to cover their topics in full and scholarly depth. The authors chosen at that time were uniformly excellent, and their presentations at that meeting were uniformly informative. Because the idea of collecting their work into a single volume (a volume which is not a conference proceedings because the format of the meetings does not allow one) was presented to them only after the conference, many of the authors were able to include post-conference developments in their specific contributions. The editor, moreover, in a long introductory article, has also brought in many specific developments which markedly enhance the timeliness of this work. Timeliness, however is not the criterion by which deep level studies should be measured,
Comprehensiveness and perspective are far more important, and this book can be wholeheartedly recommended on the basis of those criteria as well. A partial list of the chapters and their authors will serve to describe the book in a way that will be most useful to prospective readers. After the introductory article by Pantelides, there follow chapters on chalcogens in silicon by Grimmeiss and Janzen, on the lattice vacancy in silicon by Watkins, on oxygen in GaP by Dean, on EL2 by Martin and Makram-Ebeid, on DX centers by Lang, on iron in Ill—V’s by Bishop, on Cr in GaAs by Allen, and on Cr in Il—Vi’s by Baranowski. Some of these have captured the field at the peak of its maturity, Watkins’ article on the silicon vacancy for example. Very little has been done on this defect, experimentally or theoretically, beyond the material he covers. References to the few significant papers which have appeared more recently are found in Pantelides’ overview. Other articles have.captured the field at the beginning~of a period of turbulent growth, the article on EL2 for example. Martin and Makram-Ebeid provide an encyclopedic account of the experimental situation and of the chaotic understanding of what this fascinating and technologically important defect might be, at least as it was understood in 1983. The number of papers devoted to this defect has doubled or tripled since their article was cornpleted, but at this moment, one cannot be any less skeptical that the defect is understood than were they at the time of writing. Some of the chapters represent fields which had seemed to be understood at the time but which are now undergoing a renaissance as interest returns as a result of more recent experimental work. Lang’s chapter on the
0022-2313/86/$03.50 © Elsevier Science Publishers B.V. (North-Holland Physics Publishing Division)
64
G.A. Baraff / Book review
DX center falls into this category. To understand the modern developments, not all of which may turn out to be endunng one should be thoroughly familiar with the earlier experiments and their interpretation. There is no better source for that understanding than the chapter. in this book. Perhaps the reader would like to see some
criticism of the weak points of the book so that he can judge that this review is an objective one. If so, he will have to get it elsewhere, because this reviewer, who has to judge most strongly in the fields he is most familiar with, has found none that detract from the overall excellence and value of this volume.