Characterization of epitaxial and oxidation-induced stacking faults in silicon: The influence of transition-metal contamination

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Abstract
Photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and defect etching have been used to characterize epitaxial stacking faults (ESF) in silicon epilayers grown by low‐pressure chemical vapor deposition (LPCVD) and oxidation‐induced stacking faults (OISF) in high‐purity float‐zone (FZ) Si. No dislocation‐related luminescence was observed from either ESFs or OISFs grown under clean conditions. Deliberate surface contamination, followed by annealing with Cu, Fe, Ni, Ag, or Au in the range 4×1012–2×1016 atoms cm−2 introduced dislocation luminescence features, with a maximum intensity at ≊4×1012 atoms cm−2. TEM examination revealed that there was no evidence for precipitation at low levels of contamination but as the contamination level increased metal‐related precipitates were observed on the bounding partial dislocations.