Technical Papers and Notes - Institute of Metals Division - Observations on Homogeneously Bent Silicon Crystals

SINGLE slip and a single parallel array of edge dislocations have been obtained in silicon single crystals by homogeneously bending them in a four-point dead-loading device at 1000°C around the [211] axis with [253.] as the tensile axis which encloses an angle of 40° with the glide plane. Other orientations or lower temperatures proved unsuitable. The homogeneity of the bending was checked by the method shown in Fig. 1. The chemically polished specimen was exposed to parallel light from a microscope-stage lamp. The sharpness of the focus of the reflected light is an approximate measure of the circularity of the sample. This method permitted the determination of the actual radius of bent specimens within 10 pct accuracy. The etching solution developed to show up dislocations consisted of the following volume parts: 2 HF, 1 HNO,, 2 CH,COOH, 1 a solution of 5 wt pct of CuNO, in water (Rosi'). The acetic-acid content was adjusted to produce fine well-defined etch-pits in about 2 min at room temperature. The effectiveness of the etch did not depend on the crystal-lographic orientation of the face etched. The number of etch pits produced after a given deformation was checked in the usual way against the Cahn formula' and showed good agreement. As it is to be expected from the orientation of the primary system there are slip steps on the top and bottom faces but not on the side faces (perpendicular to the bending axis), whereas etch pits appear on the side faces but not on the top and bottom faces. This is different only for occasional dislocations of a secondary glide system. All the micrographs included have been taken in places where the most of secondary glide could be seen. From this it is evident that in the homegeneously deformed region the number of secondary dislocations was less than 1 in 1000 of the primary type. Dislocation Distribution—A series of tests with varying amounts of deformation is shown in Figs. 2(a-c). An observation that can readily be made from these pictures is that the linear density of dislocations within slip lines is relatively constant and independent of the amount of deformation. "Slip line" in this context is understood to mean a line that is a straight connection of individual etch pits. The heavily pitted bands which can be seen in each of these three pictures may be resolved fairly definitely, at higher magnifications, into many "slip lines" the distance between them being of the order of 0.5p The distance between dislocations in slip lines is of the order of 2p and it is also fairly constant in going from the neutral zone outward. The higher over-all dislocation density in the outer regions of any sample and the higher total number in a more heavily deformed sample, are effected by a larger number of "slip lines." The relative constancy of the dislocation distance within an individual slip line is surprising. The absence of pile-ups" may imply, if there is no rear- rangement on unloading," that there are no substantial obstacles to slip in this case. It seems that the equilibrium distribution of the dislocations in each active slip plane under the higher external stress on