CARBON PRECIPITATION IN SILICON - WHY IS IT SO DIFFICULT

It is well-established that oxygen precipitation in silicon occurs rea dily and is further facilitated by the presence of carbon. In contrast , carbon precipitation in silicon appears to be a difficult process wh ich takes place only in the presence of a sufficiently high supersatur ation of oxygen or silicon self-interstitials. It is suggested that a high interface energy of carbon precipitates in conjunction with the v olume decrease associated with carbon precipitation or agglomeration a llows one to understand the precipitation behavior of carbon in silico n.