Nature & Mobility of Dislocation in Semiconductor

Principal Investigator: A/P Liang Meng Heng

Dislocations plays an important role in determining the electronic and mechanical properties of semiconductor. Experimental evidence suggests that 2-5% of the atom sites within the dislocation core harbour localised in-gap electron energy levels which can destroy the electronic properties of solid-state devices by forming intrinsic conductive paths or developing spare charges. This effect need not be catastrophic, however, if the dislocations do not move because the device logic can be structured to avoid dislocated areas. The consequence is a loss in circuit density. The key question is dislocation mobility. This is a property that depends critically on the dislocation core. In this project, we focus on the core structures of silicon. Both the stressed and the unstressed states are considered