The Structural and Electrical Characterization of Copper Decorated Boundaries in Silicon Bicrystals

ABSTRACTSilicon bicrystals have been fabricated by sintering together single crystal {001} and {111} wafers with low angle misorientations In the range of 0.5 to 3.0 degrees. The interfaces in these bicrystals contain regular arrays of screw dislocations with observed spacings of 10 to 40 nm. The dislocations were decorated with copper which was first sputter-deposited on an external surface, then diffused into the interface by annealing the bicrystal at 400°C for 15 minutes. Analytical electron microscopy was used to characterize the spacing, orientation, and copper concentration of these dislocation arrays. The electrical properties of both decorated and undecorated bicrystals were determined using a two-probe step I-V method, and the behavior of both types of bicrystals compared.