Thermodynamic Aspects of the Increased Thermal Stability of Silicon by Doping with Transition or Rare-earth Metals

Summary.

The main reason of the degradation of silicon monocrystals at heating is a structural transformation connected with a partial transition of the diamond-like structure into the structure of white tin. The reason for this transformation being observed under high pressures is the appearance of stress zones at the boundaries of variously oriented crystal microvolumes due to heat expansion anisotropy. The high stress concentration in the microvolumes provides sufficient pressure for the indicated phase transformation which results in the observed degradation of the electrophysical properties of silicon. The prevention of the structural transformation is considered to be possible by doping of Si by transition or rare-earth metals which increases the interatomic energy and decreases the thermal expansion coefficient. The choice of the doping additions is based on the bonding energy and the charge density calculated for a system of non-polarised ionic radii. The technology to increase the thermal stability of silicon has been patented^#.