This comprehensive book reports on recent investigations of lattice imperfections in semiconductors by means of positron annihilation. It reviews positron techniques, and describes the application of these techniques to various kinds of defects, such as vacancies, impurity vacancy complexes and dislocations.

The lifetime of a positron inside a solid is normally less than a fraction of nanosecond. This is a very short time on a human scale, but is long enough to enable the positron to visit an extended region of the material, and to sense the atomic and electronic structure of the environment. Thus, we can inject a positron in a sample to draw from it some signal giving us information on the microscopic properties of the material. This idea has been successfully developed in a number of positron-based techniques of physical analysis, with resolution in energy, momentum, or position. The complex of these techniques is what we call now positron spectroscopy of solids. The field of application of the positron spectroscopy extends from advanced problems of solid-state physics to industrial applications in the area of characterization of high-tech materials. This volume focuses the attention on the physics that can be learned from positron-based methods, but also frames those methods in a wider context including other experimental approaches. It can be considered as a textbook on positron spectroscopy of solids, the sort of book that the newcomer takes for his approach to this field, but also as a useful research tool for the expert.

In condensed matter initially fast positrons annihilate after having reached equi librium with the surroundings. The interaction of positrons with matter is governed by the laws of ordinary quantum mechanics. Field theory and antiparticle properties enter only in the annihilation process leading to the emergence of energetic photons. The monitoring of annihilation radiation by nuclear spectroscopic methods provides valuable information on the electron-positron system which can directly be related to the electronic structure of the medium. Since the positron is a positive electron its behavior in matter is especially interesting to solid-state and atomic physi cists. The small mass quarantees that the positron is really a quantum mechanical particle and completely different from any other particles and atoms. Positron physics started about 25 years ago but discoveries of new features in its interac tion with matter have maintained continuous interest and increasing activity in the field. Nowadays it is becoming part of the "stock-in-trade" of experimental physics.

For one and a half decades, the application of positron annihilation to condensed-matter physics concentrated on the study of the Fermi surfaces of metals and alloys. As other, often more powerful, techniques for performing this type of study were developed, it appeared that condensed-matter positron physics was going to be relegated to being a niche interest. However, the situation changed dramatically when it was found that measurements of positron annihilation in metals were sensitive to the structures of well-known defects. This discovery, and subsequent research made it a major tool in materials science.

ICPA-12 Proceedings of the 12. Int. Conf. on Positron Annihilation, München, Germany, Aug. 6-12, 2000

This volume, number 91 in the Semiconductor and Semimetals series, focuses on defects in semiconductors. Defects in semiconductors help to explain several phenomena, from diffusion to getter, and to draw theories on materials' behavior in response to electrical or mechanical fields. The volume includes chapters focusing specifically on electron and proton irradiation of silicon, point defects in zinc oxide and gallium nitride, ion implantation defects and shallow junctions in silicon and germanium, and much more. It will help support students and scientists in their experimental and theoretical paths. - Expert contributors - Reviews of the most important recent literature - Clear illustrations - A broad view, including examination of defects in different semiconductors