Structural and Functional Properties of Si and Related Semiconducting Materials Processed by High-Pressure Torsion

We report on high-pressure torsion ( HPT ) processing of Si and related semiconducting materials, and discuss their phase transformations and electrical, thermal, and optical properties. In-situ synchrotron x-ray diffraction revealed that the metastable bc8-structure Si-III and r8-structure Si-XII in the HPT-processed Si samples gradually disappeared and hexagonal-diamond Si-IV appeared during annealing up to 473 K. The formation of Si-III/XII in the samples processed at a nominal pressure of 6 GPa indicated the strain-induced phase transformation from diamond-cubic Si-I to a high-pressure tetragonal Si-II phase during HPT processing, and a following phase transformation from Si-II to Si-III/XII upon decompression. The resistivity decreased with increasing the number of anvil rotations due to the formation of semimetallic Si-III. The thermal conductivity of Si was reduced to similar to 3 Wm(-1)K(-1) after HPT processing. A weak and broad photoluminescence peak associated with Si-I nanograins appeared in the visible light region after annealing. Metastable bc8-Si0.5Ge0.5 with a semimetallic property was formed by HPT processing of a traveling-liquidus-zone-grown Si0.5Ge0.5 crystal. These results indicate that the application of HPT processing to Si and related semiconductors paves the way to novel devices utilizing nanograins and metastable phases.