Study on interfacial dislocations of Si substrate/epitaxial layer by self-interstitial decoration technique

Trapping of migrating Si interstitials at substrate/epitaxial interfaces during high-energy Si ion bombardment has been observed. It shows that the interface of Si/Si layer, grown by molecular-beam epitaxy, is a strong sink for self-interstitials during MeV bombardment at room temperature. We reported the finding and applied it as a decoration technique to study evolution of interfacial dislocations. After the thermal annealing of Si/Si layers at a temperature ranging from 450 to 600 degreesC, samples were bombarded with MeV Si ions at room temperature. Trapped Si interstitials at the interface were quantitatively measured by Rutherford backscattering spectrometry. The integration of trapped interstitials, which indicates an activation energy for the interfacial defect release of 0.65 eV, suggests a weak binding of stored Si atoms in the interfacial dislocations. (C) 2003 American Institute of Physics.