A lattice kinetic Monte Carlo study of void morphological evolution during silicon crystal growth

Abstract

A recently developed lattice kinetic Monte Carlo (LKMC) model for vacancy aggregation is used to investigate the morphological evolution of large vacancy aggregates under different conditions relevant to commercial silicon crystal growth. In particular, the roles of dissolved oxygen atoms as vacancy complexing agents during the aggregation process are studied and the resulting effects on the void morphological evolution are compared to recent experimental observations. It is shown that oxygen plays an important role, under certain crystal growth conditions, in the final morphology of vacancy clusters, and that the LKMC model is able to explain and accurately reproduce experimental observations. The essential dynamical features of the LKMC predictions are analyzed using a simple differential equation model to describe void growth kinetics under different conditions.