Cross-slip in the high-temperature deformation of germanium, silicon and indium antimonide

Abstract

In most materials, steady-state creep at high temperatures is governed by diffusion-controlled recovery processes. Exceptions to this rule are silicon and germanium, where the measured activation energies are distinctly higher than those of self-diffusion, an effect which has not been understood until now. It is shown in this paper that a cross-slip mechanism is most probably working in the steady-state regime of these semiconductor elements, and that Escaig's model can describe fairly well the published data. In the light of these results, the recently discovered second recovery stage (stage V) in the stress–strain curves of germanium, silicon and indium antimonide may be caused by cross-slip rather than by a diffusion-controlled recovery process, as proposed earlier.