The recombination activity of small-angle grain boundaries in multi-crystalline Si was studied by using the electron-beam induced current technique. In as-grown multi-crystalline Si, the electron-beam induced current contrasts of special Σ and random grain boundaries were weak at both 300 and 100K, whereas those of small-angle grain boundaries were weak (< 3%) at 300K and strong (30 to 40%) at 100K. In contaminated multi-crystalline Si, small-angle grain boundaries showed a stronger electron-beam induced current contrast than Σ and random grain boundaries at 300K. It was indicated that small-angle grain boundaries possessed a high density of shallow levels and were easily contaminated with Fe, as compared to other grain boundaries.

Electron-Beam Induced Current Study of Small-Angle Grain Boundaries in Multicrystalline Silicon. J.Chen, T.Sekiguchi, R.Xie, P.Ahmet, T.Chikyo, D.Yang, S.Ito, F.Yin: Scripta Materialia, 2005, 52[12], 1211-5