Interaction of dopant atoms with stacking faults in silicon

The width of a stacking fault ribbon bound by a pair of partial dislocations in silicon crystals was unchanged when boron and gallium atoms of p-type dopant were agglomerated nearby the ribbon by annealing, even though the width increased when n-type dopant atoms were agglomerated as previously reported [Y. Ohno, Y. Tokumoto, I. Yonenaga, Thin Solid Films, accepted for publication]. The origin of the width-increase in n-type crystals was proposed as the reduction of the stacking fault energy, from 58±5 down to 46±5 mJ/m², due to an electronic interaction between the ribbon and the n-type dopant atoms, and the interaction energy was estimated to be 0.15±0.05 eV. On the other hand, the interaction of p-type dopant atoms with stacking faults was not detected.