Silicon monoxide influence on silicon nanocrystal formation

Abstract

Study of silicon nanocrystal (Si-nc) formation in SiOx layers during high temperature annealing was fulfilled by Monte Carlo simulation. Role of silicon monoxide in the process of cluster nucleation and growth was analyzed. Dependencies of Si-nc size, number of clusters on temperature and annealing time for open and closed systems were obtained. Simulation demonstrated that presence of silicon monoxide increased critical nucleus size and could accelerate Si-nc aggregation rate.