THE PHYSICS AND CHEMISTRY OF THE SINTERING OF SILICON

Silicon is a model material for studying the sintering of covalently bonded non-oxide ceramics. The sintering of silicon has direct applications as well to polycrystalline photovoltaics and the reaction sintering of silicon nitride. Surface diffusion is found to be the dominant mass transport path for pure silicon of all particle sizes of interest. Both boron and oxygen are surface-active and effective in inhibiting surface transport, thereby allowing shrinkage to occur by either grain-boundary or lattice diffusion. © 1990 Chapman and Hall Ltd.