Differential clustering of self-interstitials during Si crystal growth

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To find out growing rules for huge clusters of self-interstitials detected in as-grown Si crystals, i.e., Frank partial dislocation loops (FDLs), approach processes forming a di-interstitial from two individual self-interstitials are investigated by ab initio calculations. Interactions between two self-interstitials in a Si crystal are analyzed by changes of both an energy and a stress around the defects in their relative configurations. Interestingly, relations of energy and stress of two self-interstitials that are adjacent to each other show systematic changes and are categorized into three groups. Characteristic structures of di-interstitials are found as rules for constructing FDLs by collecting self-interstitials one by one.