The width of a stacking fault ribbon bound by a pair of partial dislocations in silicon crystals was unchanged when boron and gallium atoms of p-type dopant were agglomerated nearby the ribbon by annealing, even though the width increased when n-type dopant atoms were agglomerated as previously reported. The origin of the width-increase in n-type crystals was proposed as the reduction of the stacking fault energy, from 58 down to 46mJ/m2, due to an electronic interaction between the ribbon and the n-type dopant atoms, and the interaction energy was estimated to be 0.15eV. On the other hand, the interaction of p-type dopant atoms with stacking faults was not detected.

Interaction of Dopant Atoms with Stacking Faults in Silicon. Y.Ohno, Y.Tokumoto, H.Taneichi, I.Yonenaga, K.Togase, S.R.Nishitani: Physica B, 2012, 407[15], 3006-8