Transmission electron microscopic observation of oxygen precipitates in nitrogen-doped silicon

Abstract

Oxygen precipitates in nitrogen-doped Czochralski (NCZ) silicon annealed at high temperature or at low–high temperature were studied by means of transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The experiments revealed that the shapes of the oxygen precipitates in annealed NCZ silicon were different from those in conventional annealed Czochralski (CZ) silicon. Precipitates consisting of four {111} and two {100} crystal planes are considered to be cubic and amorphous. The size of the precipitates was about 300–500 Å. Stacking faults were also found in annealed NCZ silicon. It is suggested that nitrogen–oxygen (N–O) complexes acted as the nuclei of the oxygen precipitates, resulting in a change of the oxygen precipitation morphology.