The Influence of the Initial Supersaturation of Si Interstitial Atoms on the Relative Thermal Stability of Dislocation Loops in Silicon

Abstract

AbstractIn this work, we have studied the relative stability of perfect (PDLs) and faulted (FDLs) dislocation loops formed during annealing of preamorphised silicon. In particular, we have investigated the effect of the initial supersaturation of Si interstitial atoms (Si(int)s) created by the implantation process on their thermal evolution. Transmission Electron Microscopy analysis shows that in samples with a low Si interstitial supersaturation, FDLs are the dominant defects while PDLs appear as the most stable defects in highly supersaturated samples. We have calculated the formation energies of both types of dislocation loops and found that, for defects of the same size, FDLs are more energetically stable than PDLs, if their diameter is smaller than 80 nm and viceversa. The application of these calculations to the samples studied in this work indicates that a direct correspondence exists between the formation energy of the two defect families and the number of atoms bound to them. Moreover, we have shown that the relative stability of FDLs and PDLs depends on the initial supersaturation of Si(int)s created during the implantation process.