Mechanical properties of heat-treated Czochralski-grown silicon crystals

Abstract

Compression tests were performed on heat-treated silicon crystals. Yield stresses of crystals depended strongly on the size and density of precipitates induced by heat treatments. Transmission electron microscope observation revealed that SiO2 precipitates larger than a few thousand angstroms became the nucleation sites of glide dislocations, causing a decrease in the yield stress, and that microprecipitates of less than several hundred angstroms acted as obstacles to dislocation movement.