Abstract
Carrierographic (spectrally gated photoluminescence) imaging of a crystalline silicon wafer using an InGaAs camera and two spread super-bandgap illumination laser beams is introduced in both low-frequency lock-in and high-frequency heterodyne modes. Lock-in carrierographic images of the wafer up to 400 Hz modulation frequency are presented. To overcome the frame rate and exposure time limitations of the camera, a heterodyne method is employed for high-frequency carrierographic imaging which results in high-resolution near-subsurface information. The feasibility of the method is guaranteed by the typical superlinearity behavior of photoluminescence, which allows one to construct a slow enough beat frequency component from nonlinear mixing of two high frequencies. Intensity-scan measurements were carried out with a conventional single-element InGaAs detector photocarrier radiometry system, and the nonlinearity exponent of the wafer was found to be around 1.7. Heterodyne images of the wafer up to 4 kHz have been obtained and qualitatively analyzed. With the help of the complementary lock-in and heterodyne modes, camera-based carrierographic imaging in a wide frequency range has been realized for fundamental research and industrial applications toward in-line nondestructive testing of semiconductor materials and devices.
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Acknowledgments
The authors are grateful to NSERC for a Discovery grant, to the Canada Foundation for Innovation for equipment grants, and to the Ontario Ministry for Research and Innovation for the Inaugural Premier’s Discovery Award in Science and Technology (2007). QMS gratefully acknowledges the Academic Support Program for Outstanding PhD of UESTC, and the Central-University Basic Research Fund of UESTC (Grant No. ZYGX2012Z006).
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Sun, Q.M., Melnikov, A. & Mandelis, A. Camera-Based Lock-in and Heterodyne Carrierographic Photoluminescence Imaging of Crystalline Silicon Wafers. Int J Thermophys 36, 1274–1280 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10765-014-1599-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10765-014-1599-z