Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 February 2011
An overview is presented on mechanisms of electronically induced (enhanced) defect reactions in semiconductors, which are classified into the local heating, the structural instability, and the recombination enhanced. A mechanism for the annihilation of a hydrogen-carbon complex in silicon is given as an example of the second one. The last two mechanisms can be treated in a unified scheme by using the correct configuration coordinate diagram, which enable us to treat correctly the correlation in successive captures of an electron and a hole. The energy conversion mechanism during the reaction is precisely discussed paying attention to the relation between the lattice relaxation mode and the symmetry breaking reaction coordinate.