Single crystals, growth

Single-crystal siHcon can also be grown from various fluxes and by a combination of electrolysis and fluxes at temperatures weU below the melting point of pure siHcon (16). The main disadvantages are the inclusion of the flux in the crystal and the poor crystal quaHty. Potential advantages are a decrease in growth temperature and purification during electrolysis. 

Molten silicon is not a semiconductor, and has no commercial use, although because of the high heat of fusion, it has been considered as a heat storage medium. The Hquid (molten) siUcon properties summarized in Table 6 are nevertheless of importance because these affect single-crystal growth, an operation through which essentially all semiconductor-grade siUcon must pass. 

A number of theories have been put forth to explain the mechanism of polytype formation (30—36), such as the generation of steps by screw dislocations on single-crystal surfaces that could account for the large number of polytypes formed (30,35,36). The growth of crystals via the vapor phase is beheved to occur by surface nucleation and ledge movement by face specific reactions (37). The soHd-state transformation from one polytype to another is beheved to occur by a layer-displacement mechanism (38) caused by nucleation and expansion of stacking faults in close-packed double layers of Si and C. 

By beginning with methane, the diamonds formed have only in them. These tiny diamonds may then be used as the carbon source to form large (5 mm) single crystals by growth from molten catalyst metal in a temperature gradient. The resulting nearly pure crystals have outstanding thermal conductivities suitable for special appHcations as windows and heat sinks (24). 

Purified polycrystalline CVD siUcon from this reaction is then melted and a single-crystal boule weighing as much or more than 50 kg, and having a diameter up to 20 cm, is pulled from the melt by C2ochralski growth (8). Metallurgical-grade siUcon is not sufficientiy pure for appHcations in electronics... 

The process of sintering by vapour phase transport is probably important to the growth of single crystals of solids from polycrystalline samples in a closed system, where the vapour species are the transporting gas, which may have the same or different chemical composition from die solid. An example where... 

Figure 3.4 Grain growth in a UO2 fuel rod during high-temperature service, showing the three zones of the original grain structure (I), the equi-axed central zone (II), and the mainly single crystal zone (III) surrounding the central void...

An example of an analysis done on polysilicon and single-crystal Czochralski silicon (CZ) is shown in Table 1. As can be seen, polysilicon, which was used to grow the crystal, is dirtier than the CZ silicon. This is expected, since segregation coefficients limit the incorporation of each element into the crystal boule during the crystal growth process. All values shown in the table are from bulk analysis. Table 2 shows NAA data obtained in an experiment where surface analysis was accom-... 

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