Towards A Deeper Understanding of Plastic Deformation in Mono-Crystalline Silicon
Towards A Deeper Understanding of Plastic Deformation in Mono-Crystalline Silicon
Abstract
This paper investigates the plastic deformation in mono-crystalline silicon under complex loading con-
ditions. With the aid of various characterization techniques, it was found that the mechanism of plasticity
in silicon is complex and depends on loading conditions, involving dislocations, phase transformations
and chemical reactions. In general, plastic deformation in silicon is the coupled result of mechanical
deformation controlled by the stress 3eld applied, chemical reaction determined by the external loading
environment, and mechanical–chemical interaction governed by both the loading type and environment.
Temperature rise accelerates the penetration of oxygen into silicon and reduces the critical stress of plastic
yielding. When the chemical e4ect is avoided, the initiation of plasticity is enabled by octahedral shear
stress but the further development of plastic deformation is in5uenced by hydrostatic stress. Plasticity of
silicon in the form of phase transformations, e.g., from the diamond to amorphous or from the amorphous
to bcc structures, is determined by loading history. ? 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction
Mono-crystalline silicon is a key material for both the micro-electro-mechanical systems and
etalon components that require high surface 3nish and damage-free subsurface. As a result, the
deformation mechanisms in the material during surface processing must be fully understood.
The challenge is that in many modern surfacing processes, in addition to mechanical loading,
material removal is often a4ected by other external factors, such as chemical reaction when
polishing=grinding 5uid is applied, and electric, magnetic and electronic factors when a physical
3eld is used to assist the surfacing. Hence, to quantify the material removal process and control
∗
Corresponding author. Tel.: +61-2-9351-2835; fax: +61-2-9351-7060.
E-mail address: [email protected] (L. Zhang).
0020-7403/01/$ - see front matter ? 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
PII: S 0 0 2 0 - 7 4 0 3 ( 0 1 ) 0 0 0 2 4 - 8
1986 L. Zhang, I. Zarudi / International Journal of Mechanical Sciences 43 (2001) 1985–1996
2. Experimental details
Table 1
Grinding conditions
Table 2
Grinding wheel dressing conditions
In the present study, plastic deformation is a generalized concept that includes the irreversible
deformation caused by dislocations, planar defects, phase transformations or chemical reactions.
The subsurface structures of silicon after indentation, scratching, grinding, and polishing are
explored through Figs. 1– 4, respectively. A common feature of the structures is the phase trans-
formations in all the specimens subjected to di4erent loading conditions, although the mecha-
nisms vary.
1988 L. Zhang, I. Zarudi / International Journal of Mechanical Sciences 43 (2001) 1985–1996
Fig. 1. The cross-sectional view of indentation-induced deformation in the subsurfaces of silicon specimens after
complete unloading. Note the bcc-silicon particles with lighter colors, highlighted by the dotted white curves in (b).
(a) 30 mN, (b) 70 mN, and (c) 90 mN.
Fig. 2. A cross-sectional view of the scratching-induced deformation in the subsurfaces of the silicon specimens
under various loads. Note the coexistence of dislocations and planar defects in (b). In both the cases shown in (b)
and (c), amorphous layers on the scratched surfaces dislodged due to micro-cracking and can no longer be viewed
on the photos. (a) 4:4 N, (b) 7:8 N, and (c) 11:2 N.
The indentation-induced transformation zone has a nearly hemispherical shape under lower
loads (Fig. 1a), but approaches a cone when the load increases (Fig. 1c). A characteristic of
the material’s microstructure in the zone is its dependence on the indentation load. At a low
load between 30 and 40 mN, the amorphous phase of silicon covers the whole transformation
zone (Fig. 1a). However, when the load is beyond 50 mN, crystalline particles of bcc-silicon
appear in the middle of the zone, as shown in Fig. 1b. The bcc phase grows quickly with
the further increment of the load and occupies almost the whole transformation zone when
the load reaches about 90 mN, see Fig. 1c. During the deformation, planar defects also appear
beneath the transformation zone but dislocations never occur. When the indentation load reaches
100 mN, micro-cracking appears. No chemical reaction takes place.
L. Zhang, I. Zarudi / International Journal of Mechanical Sciences 43 (2001) 1985–1996 1989
Fig. 3. Grinding-induced deformation and oxygen penetration accelerated by grinding and polishing: (a) subsurface
deformation with both amorphous transformation and dislocations; (b) dislocations induced by grinding at a table
speed of 1 m=min (note that two dislocation systems appear); (c) dislocations induced by grinding at a table speed
of 0:02 m=min (note that only one dislocation system appears); (d) variation of depth of oxygen penetration with
loading conditions.
Fig. 4. A cross-sectional view of the polishing-induced subsurface deformation. Note that dislocations and planar
defects do not appear. Amorphous phase transformation with oxidation is the only cause of plastic deformation.
The deformation caused by the single-point scratching possesses similar characteristics, i.e.,
amorphous phase transformation (Fig. 2a) constitutes the majority of the plastic deformation
with intensive planar defects (Fig. 2b) when the normal scratching load is small. Although bcc
phase does not emerge, dislocations do appear in this case, as shown in Figs. 2b and c. At a
1990 L. Zhang, I. Zarudi / International Journal of Mechanical Sciences 43 (2001) 1985–1996
greater load, e.g., 7:8 N, dislocations and planar defects are generated (Fig. 2b). Upon a further
increment of the load, the material exhibits its brittle nature, demonstrated by extensive cracking
and dislodging, see Fig. 2c. Similarly, no chemical reaction occurs.
As shown in Fig. 3a, grinding introduces signi3cant amorphous phase transformation but at the
same time initiates two systems of dislocations, as presented in Figs. 3b and c. In this case, the
major deformation is still due to the phase change because only two slip systems of dislocations
cannot form considerable macroscopic plastic deformation. Nevertheless, a chemical composition
analysis of the ground components reveals that grinding accelerates chemical reaction through
the application of the water-based coolant, Syntilo3. Oxygen penetrates into the deep subsurface
of the silicon specimen, whose depth depends on the grinding conditions, as shown in Fig. 3d,
and forms silicon oxide. Neither planar defects nor the bcc phase of silicon appear.
Unlike grinding and scratching that are two-body abrasions, polishing is a three-body abra-
sion. With the water-based -Al2 O3 slurry under a polishing load less than 450 mN, the scale
of the abrasive indentation depths was at the nanometer level. Fig. 4, where each dot indicates a
silicon atom, shows that the amorphous layer generated by polishing, which is above the dotted
white curve, is very thin but its average thickness varies with the polishing load. Similar to
grinding, penetration of oxygen and thus silicon oxidation in the subsurface has been consider-
able (see the curve in Fig. 3d) and the penetration depth increases with the load. An important
phenomenon associated with polishing is that dislocations, bcc phase, and planar defects never
appear.
Using the molecular dynamics analysis, Zhang and coworkers [17–20] found that under in-
dentation, scratching, grinding or polishing, the regime of pure elastic deformation in silicon is
very small. In a high vacuum environment, plastic yielding via amorphous phase transformation
upon loading takes place 3rst and then the transformation is caused by the distortion of the
atomic lattice of silicon. The 3rst transformation is governed by the octahedral shear stress,
oct , with its threshold oct = 4:6 GPa in 1 0 0 direction and oct = 7:6 GPa in 1 1 0 direction.
However, the formation of both the amorphous and bcc phases after indentation depends on
loading history. The amorphous phase appeared during loading will disappear upon unloading,
if the unloading takes place at a small indentation load, because in this case a re-crystallization
from the amorphous to the original diamond structure will occur during unloading. Only when
the hydrostatic stress in loading, 0 , reaches a critical value, 8 GPa, such that a second phase
transformation from amorphous silicon to -silicon takes place, will an amorphous phase remain
after unloading. Similarly, bcc silicon during unloading will not appear unless the maximum
hydrostatic stress during loading is beyond 15 GPa. All these are consistent with the experimen-
tal observations shown in Fig. 1 and they indicate that the nature of the plastic deformation in
silicon relies greatly on stressing history. Fig. 5 summarizes the above conclusions graphically.
Indentation promotes planar defects such as stacking faults, emanating from the bottom of the
transformation zone. Their penetration depth changes with the indentation load, which increases
until the load reaches about 90 mN and then decreases when the load increases further, as
shown in Fig. 6. The phenomenon seems related to the initiation of micro-cracking at the
intersections of the planar defects, i.e., the relaxation due to micro-cracking seems to hinder the
L. Zhang, I. Zarudi / International Journal of Mechanical Sciences 43 (2001) 1985–1996 1991
Fig. 6. The variation of penetration depth of the planar defects with indentation load.
planar defects from further penetration. No dislocation before micro-cracking means that planar
defects are easier to be initiated in silicon at ambient temperature.
In scratching, planar defects still dominate at lower scratching loads but dislocations develop
quickly as the load increases. Using a triangular model of moving heat source based on the
theory of heat conduction [21], it is found that the maximum temperature rise in silicon under
◦ ◦ ◦
scratching is 150 C at the load of 4:4 N but reaches 200 C and 340 C at 7:8 and 11:2 N,
respectively. Hence, temperature rise seems to play a key role in activating dislocations.
The grinding operations bring about dislocations only beneath the transformation zone, as
shown above in Figs. 3a–c, without planar defects. In all the grinding cases, the maximum
◦
temperature rise in the silicon subsurfaces exceeds 200 C. Thus, compared with the conditions
in indentation and scratching, it is clear that at high temperatures, dislocations are easier to be
activated in silicon.
On the other hand, polishing never introduces dislocations, planar defects or micro-cracks.
Compared with all the other operations above, a characteristic in polishing is that the abrasive
penetration into a silicon specimen is on the order of a nanometer. This indicates that at the
1992 L. Zhang, I. Zarudi / International Journal of Mechanical Sciences 43 (2001) 1985–1996
nanometer scale, deformation via amorphous phase transformation is a more favorable mecha-
nism. The theoretical results from molecular dynamics analysis presented above do support the
conclusion.
The deformation of silicon can be divided into two stages, elastic deformation and plastic
deformation. The plastic deformation, using the generalized de3nition in this study, is caused
by all the irreversible atomic movements, such as the phase transformations, and the invasion of
foreign atoms, such as the chemical reaction revealed in the experiments. Thus, to describe the
initial yielding in silicon, three groups of factors must be considered. The 3rst is the stress state
that is, the stimulus of the atomic motion. The second is the mechanical property of silicon,
determined by the strength of atomic bonds and lattice structure, which governs the response
of the atoms to an external stimulus. The third is silicon’s chemical property that speci3es
the extent of possible chemical reactions under complex loading conditions. Macroscopically, it
is reasonable to assume that at a point in silicon when a certain combination of the principal
stresses and the parameters representing the mechanical and chemical properties reaches a critical
status, an irreversible deformation occurs at this point. Mathematically, it can be written as
F(1 ; 2 ; 3 ; k1 ; k2 ; : : : ; km ) = 0; (1)
where I1 is the 3rst stress invariant, J2 is the second invariant of deviatoric stress tensor and
k and
(0 6
6 1) are material constants to be determined. Clearly,
is an indicator of the
contribution of hydrostatic stress, with
= 0 representing its zero contribution and
= 1 show-
ing its full contribution. By 3tting the indentation and scratching results obtained above, it is
found that
is nearly zero. This indicates that in the case without chemical reaction, octa-
hedral shearing governs the initiation of the amorphous phase transformation at loading. The
e4ect of hydrostatic stress on the initial transformation from diamond to amorphous structure is
trivial.
L. Zhang, I. Zarudi / International Journal of Mechanical Sciences 43 (2001) 1985–1996 1993
Fig. 7. Thickness of amorphous layer: experimentally measured (after complete unloading) and theoretically predicted
(before unloading): (a) in scratched specimens; (b) in ground specimens.
Criterion (2) predicts very well the initiation of the amorphous phase induced by inden-
tation, scratching, and grinding. For example, Fig. 7 compares the experimentally measured
thickness of the residual amorphous layer with the predictions of the criterion. It is reason-
able that the theoretically predicted thickness is greater because the experimental measurement
was performed after unloading and according to the study of molecular dynamics simulation
[17], a re-crystallization from amorphous to diamond silicon occurs at unloading, which makes
the residual thickness of amorphous silicon much smaller compared to that before unloading.
In calculating the stress 3eld in a specimen subjected to scratching and grinding, the method
developed by Zarudi and Zhang [12] was employed.
However, the criterion does not predict well the amorphous change introduced by polishing.
An experimental examination shows that polishing under a normal load of 147 mN results in an
amorphous layer of 1:3 nm in thickness. Nevertheless, the application of criterion (2) concludes
that such an amorphous layer can be generated only when the e4ective modulus of the polishing
1994 L. Zhang, I. Zarudi / International Journal of Mechanical Sciences 43 (2001) 1985–1996
Fig. 8. A comparison of the theoretical prediction of amorphous layer thickness with the experimental measurement.
The loading is via polishing with the water-based
-Al2 O3 slurry. E ∗ = 5 MPa is used in the theoretical calculations.
1
Here the abrasive-pad and silicon specimen in polishing are considered to be the counterparts of a contact
system.
L. Zhang, I. Zarudi / International Journal of Mechanical Sciences 43 (2001) 1985–1996 1995
4. Conclusions
Acknowledgements
The continuous 3nancial support of the Australian Research Council to this work is appreci-
ated. The Electron Microscopy Unit of Sydney University o4ered free access to its facilities.
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