Uniform Stress Effect on Nucleation of Oxygen Precipitates in Czochralski Grown Silicon

Precipitation of oxygen in Czochralski grown silicon, Cz-Si, at higher temperatures is concomitant with stress [1,2]. This follows mostly from the difference in volume between the clustered (precipitated) oxygen atoms and that of the Si atoms originally present in the same region of the lattice. Stress-related effects in Cz-Si are present even at the earliest stages of clustering, that is at the “thermal donor, TD, temperature range” (TDs exert a compressive stress on the surrounding Si lattice [3]). The same takes place in the case of new donors, NDs, and of nucleation centres for oxygen precipitation, NCs, created at about 1000K.