PL and TEM have been carried out on SIMOX structures before and after thinning the silicon overlayer by a process of sacrificial oxidation. The implantation and high temperature annealing schedules involved in fabricating SIMOX material result in threading dislocations and stacking fault tetrahedra and pyramidals in the silicon overlayer. The optical activity of these extended defects is found to be low. However, after the sacrificial oxidation, strong dislocation related luminescence is observed, which is attributed to the presence of oxidation-induced stacking faults now present in the overlayer.

Gold and copper decorated oxidation-induced stacking faults in silicon have been studied by TEM, DLTS and EBIC. DLTS profiling indicates that the spatial extent of the electrical activity correlates with the location of the Frank partials bounding the stacking faults. We find that the detailed electrical properties of the deep levels are independent of the species of decorating impurity.