A positron study of plastic deformation of silicon

Abstract

Positron lifetime and Doppler broadening experiments have been conducted in silicon which was subjected to various degrees of plastic deformation. With increasing plastic deformation (from 2.5 to 38%) the trapping rate per unit dislocation concentration decreased from about 8 × 10 15 to 4.5 × 10 15 s −1 as measured at room temperature. Two annealing stages were identified by isochronal annealing, one of which had an activation enthalpy of 3.2 to 3.8 eV as determined by isothermal annealing. Measurements in the temperature range 15 to 673 K show that the positron annihiliation parameters (lifetimes, intensities, and S-parameters) depend strongly on temperature and that the functional form of these dependencies is related to the state of annealing of the deformed samples. These results are disscussed in terms of the presence of vacancy clusters and dislocations, and evidence is presented indicating the existence of the hexavacancy.