In Situ Observation of Oxygen Precipitation in Silicon with High Energy X-Rays

Abstract:

Oxygen precipitation in silicon has been studied in-situ by high energy X-ray diffraction. A gain of diffracted intensity is expected if an ideal crystal is distorted by growing precipitates as the diffraction mode changes from a dynamical to a more kinematical one. Irreversible changes in the intensity of a 220 and a 400 Bragg peak are detected for Czochralski grown samples only, but not in a float zone grown reference crystal. Thus, these changes are attributed to oxygen precipitation, which is confirmed by a subsequent classical ex-situ characterization. Further, the changes of the intensities of the two measured Bragg peaks are compared to each other to get the level of change in the diffraction mode from a dynamical to a kinematical one. The detection limit of the specific setup is estimated via a simulation of the defect inventory to correspond to a precipitate diameter of 50nm with the density of 6.9•109 1/cm3. The diffraction experiments are done with polychromatic and divergent X-rays generated by a laboratory source, albeit with high energy. This results in a simple and accessible setup for the characterization of oxygen precipitates.

• Periodical: Solid State Phenomena (Volumes 156-158)
• Pages: 437-441
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.4028/www.scientific.net/SSP.156-158.437
• Online since: October 2009
• Authors: Hannes Grillenberger, Andreas Magerl
• Keywords: High Energy X-Ray Diffraction, In Situ, Oxygen Precipitation, Silicon

References

[1] A. Borghesi, B. Pivac, A. Sassella, and A. Stella, Journal of Applied Physics 77, 4169 (1995).

DOI: 10.1063/1.359479

[2] A. Magerl, J. R. Schneider, and W. Zulehner, Journal of Applied Physics 67, 533 (1990).

[3] K. D. Liss, A. Magerl, J. R. Schneider, and W. Zulehner, Journal of Applied Physics 70, 1276 (1991).

[4] J. Schneider, O. Goncalves, A. Rollason, U. Bonse, J. Lauer, and W. Zulehner, Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section B: Beam Interactions with Materials and Atoms 29, 661 (1988).

DOI: 10.1016/0168-583x(88)90474-0

[5] J. R. Schneider, R. Bouchard, H. A. Graf, and H. Nagasawa, Acta Crystallographica Section A 48, 804 (1992).

[6] T. Schmidt, PhD thesis, DESY int. report: DESY HASYLAB 95-09, (1995).

[7] M. Stockmeier and A. Magerl, Journal of Applied Crystallography 41, 754 (2008).

[8] A. Authier, Dynamical Theory of X-Ray Diffraction, Oxford Univ. Press, Oxford, 2001).

[9] M. Stockmeier, M. Petermair, and A. Magerl, Journal of Applied Crystallography 41, 185 (2008).

[10] M. T. Dove, Structure and dynamics: An atomic view of materials, Oxford Univ. Press, (2003).