Roles for A Precursor Oxide Phase in The Siting, Shaping, and Shrinking of Oxygen Precipitates

ABSTRACTThree separate “anomalous” effects in the precipitation of oxygen in silicon may be explained if typical poorly-crystallized platelet oxygen precipitates begin as tiny crystalline clusters. The first anomaly, sometimes referred to as the induction effect, may be explained if one postulates the existence of kinetically stable precipitate embryos (seeds) containing no more than one or two oxygen atoms. We show here that such a postulate, coupled with observations, places rather specific constraints on binding energy as a function of size for such tiny clusters. The second and third anomalies, arising in precipitate shape and retrogrowth behavior dependences, respectively, may be explained if one postulates the existence of a relatively dense precursor phase which undergoes first order phase transition, following otherwise classical rules, to the final-stage amorphous oxide normally found. In this case, both precipitate shape and strain field can be interpreted as a barometer of the interstitial ambient during key periods in a precipitate's history.