Enhanced diffusion and precipitation of iron in gold-doped polycrystalline silicon

Abstract
Decoration of grain boundaries by iron has been found possible at low temperature (600 °C and above) only if gold is present in the polycrystalline silicon sample. Evidence is presented that the gold increases the solubility of the iron rather than its diffusion constant. Without the gold present, the solubility of the iron is apparently too low. The presence of the iron is detected by the resulting high conductivity at low temperature along the grain boundary, with characteristics similar to impurity band conductivity. The effect is analogous to ‘‘piping’’ of gold-doped silicon during the diffusion of some donor impurities to form diodes or transistors.

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