Abstract
The residual strain and its variation in multicrystalline Si substrates for solar cells have been quantitatively characterized. The strain was evaluated from the absolute difference of refractive indices |Δn| and the principal direction ψ of strain-induced birefringence measured by scanning infrared polariscope, and the effective photoelastic coefficients calculated numerically at each grain, the crystallographic orientation of which was determined by the electron backscatter diffraction technique. It has been shown that the residual strain increases at grains with multitwin boundaries and in the vicinity of small-angle grain boundaries, reaching the order of 10−4, corresponding to 10 MPa in terms of stress.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
S. Kouteva-Arguirova, W. Seifert, M. Kittler, and J. Reif, Mater. Sci. Eng. B102, 37 (2003).
S. He, T. Zheng, and S. Danyluk, J. Appl. Phys. 96, 3103 (2004).
S. He and S. Danyluk, Appl. Phys. Lett. 89, 111909 (2006).
M.C. Brito, J.P. Pereira, J. Maia Alves, J.M. Serra, and A.M. Vallera, Rev. Sci. Instrum. 76, 013901 (2005).
F. Li, V. Garcia, and S. Danyluk, Conference Record of the 2006 IEEE 4th World Conference on Photovoltaic Energy Conversion, WCPEC-4 1, art. no. 4059863 (2006) p. 1245.
M. Yamada, Rev. Sci. Instrum. 64, 1815 (1993).
M. Fukuzawa and M. Yamada, J. Cryst. Growth 229, 22 (2001).
M. Fukuzawa and M. Yamada, Mater. Sci. Semicond. Process. 9, 266 (2006).
J. Chen, B. Chen, T. Sekiguchi, M. Fukuzawa, and M. Yamada, Appl. Phys. Lett. 93, 112105 (2008).
S. Nara, T. Sekiguchi, and J. Chen, Eur. Phys. J. Appl. Phys. 27, 389 (2004).
T.S. Narasimhamurty, Photoelastic and Electro-Optic Properties of Crystal (New York: Plenum, 1981).
J.F. Nye, Physical Properties of Crystals (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1972).
Z.H. Levine, H. Zhong, and S. Wei, Phys. Rev. B45, 4131 (1992).
Acknowledgement
The authors would like to thank Mr. R. Kashiwagi for assistance in preparing the figures used in this paper.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Fukuzawa, M., Yamada, M., Rafiqul Islam, M. et al. Quantitative Photoelastic Characterization of Residual Strains in Grains of Multicrystalline Silicon. J. Electron. Mater. 39, 700–703 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11664-010-1164-x
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11664-010-1164-x