Formation of voids and oxide particles in silicon crystals

Agglomeration of vacancies in oxygen-rich silicon crystals starts with nucleation of oxide particles. Some particles are then transformed into voids by cavitation: a bubble is nucleated at a corner of an octahedral particle. Evolution of a bubbled particle may result in formation of a double octahedral void. The vacancy loss (mainly to voids) results in suppression of further cavitation. The final microdefect population includes both voids and oxide particles. The density of either microdefect is computed in dependence of the vacancy concentration, oxygen content and cooling rate.