Grain Boundaries in Silicon

Gu, H., Shinoda, Y., and Wakai, F., Detection of boron segregation to grain boundaries in silicon carbide by spatially resolved electron energy-loss spectroscopy , J. Am. Ceram. Soc., 1999, 82, 469-72. 

Figure 14.7 Reprinted from Carter, C.B., Fdll, H., Ast, D.G., and Sass, S.L. (1981) Electron diffraction and microscopy studies of the structure of grain boundaries in silicon, Phil. Mag. A 43, 441. With permission from Taylor and Francis, http //www.tandf.co.uk/journals Figure 14.8 Reprinted from Sass, S.L. and Riihle, M. (1984) The detection of the change in mean inner potential at dislocations in grain-boundaries in NiO, Phil. Mag. 49, 759, with permission from Taylor and Francis. http //www.tandf.co.uk/journals...

A. Otsuki, Energies of (001) twist grain boundaries in silicon, Acta Mater., 49 (2001), 1737-1745. 

Porous layers have also been formed in polycrystalline silicon [100]. The presence of the grain boundaries in the polysilicon gives rise to a unique morphology. Depletion of majority carriers from the grain boundaries inhibits pore growth in these regions, while voids are observed adjacent to the boundaries. Smaller pores are seen in the grain interiors. 

Inhomogeneous stress distributions that arise at the grain boundaries in polycrystalline silicon wafers were detected by fan-shaped dislocation clusters close to the grain boundaries. The dislocation clusters are formed during the solidification process and relieve stresses produced in the system. 

C. H. Seager and D. S. Ginley, Passivation of grain boundaries in polycrystalline silicon, Appl. Phys. Lett. 34(5), 337, 1979. 

G. Pezzotti, K. Ota and H.-J. Kleebe, Viscous Slip along Grain Boundaries in Chlorine-Doped Silicon Nitride, J. Am. Ceram. Soc., 80, 1997, 2341-48. 

Silicon nitride-based ceramics are polycrystalline materials that consist at least of two phases, the silicon nitride grains and the grain boundary. In this chapter, an attempt will be made to describe, separately, the properties of both the grain and grain boundary phases. The effect of combining these phases, with regards to the mechanical properties of the materials, will also be discussed. 

J. Chen and T. Sekiguchi, Carrier recombination activity and structural properties of small-angle grain boundaries in multiciystalline silicon. The Japan Society of Applied Physics 46, 6489 (2007). 

Figure 4.10 A plot of the grain-boundary energy for [001] twist boundaries in silicon versus the twist angle at 1,200 °C.

One might expect the grain-boundary energy to have low values for low values of X. However, this is often not the case. This may be seen for [001] twist boundaries in silicon in Figure 4.10 [8]. Four cusps are... 

Similar passivation effects of atomic hydrogen on grain boundaries in polycrystalline silicon have also been reported (39). However, the explanation here is that the surface or grain boundary states are filled upon interaction with covalently bonding atoms, and these filled states then become inactive as recombination centers. Further work is required to establish the correct model. 

---