Abstract
Utilizing the scanning electron microscope, the laser-impact zone on irradiated P-type silicon wafers has been characterized by a central region of compressive stress which decreases to zero and becomes tensile in character with increasing radius from the impact centre, with symmetrical fracturing occurring around the impact centre at a point of maximum tensile stress. The effect of surface flaws on the fracture of brittle Si wafers and their interaction with the impact zone were observed to be small for scratch widths of 60 μm, and lengths of 1 cm. Direct observations of advancing crack tips were made in the transmission electron microscope, and shown to have associated arrays of partial and total dislocations. The presence of numerous precipitates in the P-type Si wafers possessing long-range strain fields which overlapped along the {111} cleavage planes was observed to have a direct influence on the fracture process. Fracture was observed to occur in wafers containing cleavage-oriented scratches or scratches deviating by ∼ 5° from a cleavage-plane orientation, but little influence was noted for randomly oriented scratches or those which deviated from a cleavage-plane orientation by ∼ 10° or greater.
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