Structure and Origin of Stacking Faults in Epitaxial Silicon

Abstract

Light optical and transmission electron microscopy on epitaxially deposited silicon crystals in [100], [110], and [111] orientation show that growth stacking faults are formed regardless of orientation. These faults occur in bundles of usually tetrahedral figures with the apices at the substrate-film interface, and some faults may exist as closed intrinsic-extrinsic pairs. The results suggest that faults are nucleated by oxygen contamination. Some evidence for impurity segregation to faults is also presented.