Unveiling hole-facilitated amorphisation in pressure-induced phase transformation of silicon

2024/12/06 by Tong Zhao, Zhao, Tong, Shulin Zhong +21
Engineering · Materials Science · #Advanced Surface Polishing Techniques #Thin-Film Transistor Technologies #Silicon Nanostructures and Photoluminescence

paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2412.04732

Abstract

Pressure-induced phase transformation occurs during silicon (Si) wafering processes. \beta-tin (Si-II) phase is formed at high pressures, followed by the transformation to Si-XII, Si-III or/and amorphous Si (α-Si) phases during the subsequent decompression. While the imposed pressure and its release rate are known to dictate the phase transformation of Si, the effect of charge carriers are ignored. Here, we experimentally unveil that the increased hole concentration facilitates the amorphization in the pressure-induced phase transformation of Si. The underlying mechanism is elucidated by the theoretical calculations based on machine-learning interatomic potentials. The hole-facilitated amorphization is also experimentally confirmed to occur in the indented Ge, GaAs or SiC. We discover that hole concentration is another determining factor for the pressure-induced phase transformations of the industrially important semiconductors.

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