X-ray topography studies of microdefects in silicon

Abstract

X-ray topography has been successfully applied to study microdefects with sizes in the range from well below standard topographic resolution to tenths of a µm, thus effectively widening the applicability of Lang section topography. The lower value is set by the application of high-order asymmetric reflections. The disappearance of the Kato fringes on section topographs is a clear indication of the existence of defects which are not detectable as standard contrast features. The presence of defects with such sizes was confirmed by transmission electron microscopy. Microdefects in the higher end of the size spectrum are well covered by Lang traverse and section topography, where detailed study of the contrast is possible for individual defects. Lang traverse and section topographies were applied to study specific cases of oxygenrelated defects in silicon crystals.