The brittle-to-ductile transition in arsenic doped (001) CZ silicon single crystals was experimentally studied. The temperature dependence of apparent fracture toughness was measured by three-point bending tests at various strain rates. The brittle-to-ductile transition temperature in arsenic doped silicon was found to be lower than that in non-doped. The activation energy was obtained from the strain rate dependence of the brittle-to-ductile transition temperature. It was found that the value of the activation energy in the arsenic doped silicon was lower than that in non-doped, suggesting that the dislocation velocity in the silicon single crystal was increased by arsenic doping. The effect of increasing in dislocation velocity on the brittle-to-ductile transition temperature was also investigated by two-dimensional discrete dislocation dynamics simulations, indicating that the brittle-to-ductile transition temperature was decreased by increasing in dislocation velocity

The Effect of Arsenic on the Brittle-to-Ductile Transition in Si Single Crystals. Y.J.Hong, M.Tanaka, K.Higashida: Materials Transactions, 2009, 50[9], 2177-81