Vacancies and interstitials in Group IV semiconductors: what has been learned from EPR studies

G. Watkins

16A Memorial Drive East, Sherman Fairchild Laboratory, room 209A, Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA 18015, USA

Our understanding of the intrinsic defects - vacancies and interstitials - and their interactions with other defects in the group-IV elemental semiconductor silicon has advanced greatly since 1959, when successful EPR identifications were first reported. The major part of this talk will be to review this progress and to summarize what we think we currently know. Recently there have also been remarkable advances in our understanding of the corresponding defects in diamond, spearheaded again from EPR studies. There are strong similarites with what has been learned in silicon, but there are important differences as well. These will also be briefly discussed.