Homogeneous nucleation of oxide precipitates in Czochralski-grown silicon

Abstract

The nucleation rate of oxide precipitates in silicon at 750 °C was determined by two‐step annealing and through transmission electron microscopy. The density of oxide precipitates was found to increase by annealing in proportion to annealing time. The precipitates were of two kinds: (a) grown from microprecipitates which existed in as‐grown crystals, and (b) grown nuclei which nucleated during the annealing. The nucleation rate was obtained by discriminating (b) from (a) to be about 10⁷ cm⁻³ sec⁻¹ for an oxygen content of 11×10¹⁷ atoms cm⁻³. Using this result and classical nucleation theory, homogeneous nucleation mechanism of oxygen precipitation is discussed.