Modification of local structure and its influence on electrical activity of near (310) σ5 grain boundary in bulk silicon

Abstract

We report on the modification of the local structures of (310) σ5 grain boundary in bulk silicon as the growth of crystal and its influence on electrical activity. The grain boundary was formed via floating-zone growth method utilizing bicrystal seed. The misalignment of the seed resulted in formation of the grain boundary with small deviations of crystal orientation from the E5 singular coincidence orientation. The deviations consist of tilt and twist components and they were found to monotonically decrease with respect to the distance from the seed crystal accompanied by the decrease in density of dislocations on the grain boundary. The change in the grain boundary structure allows a systematic study on the correlation between the structure and the electrical activity at the GB. The density of dislocations was found to control the electrical activity and the (310) σ5 coincidence grain boundary without any dislocations is expected to show a very low electrical activity. © 2007 The Japan Institute of Metals.