Phase transformation as the single-mode mechanical deformation of silicon

S. Wong*, B. Haberl, J. S. Williams, J. E. Bradby

*Corresponding author for this work

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    24 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    The metastable body-centered cubic (bc8) and rhombohedral (r8) phases of silicon that are formed after the nanoindentation of diamond cubic silicon exhibit properties that are of both scientific and technological interest. This letter demonstrates that large regions of these phases can be readily formed from crystalline silicon via nanoindentation with minimal damage to the surrounding crystal. Cross-sectional transmission electron microscopy is used to show that volumes of these phases 6μm wide and up to 650nm deep can be generated using a symmetrical spherical tip of ∼21.5μm diameter. This result indicates that the use of large symmetrical spherical tips result in highly hydrostatic conditions that can favor the single phase transformation mode without extensive damage to the surrounding crystalline regions that are observed in previous studies.

    Original languageEnglish
    Article number252103
    JournalApplied Physics Letters
    Volume106
    Issue number25
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 22 Jun 2015

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