Abstract
The atomic structure of an incommensurate (001)/(110) Si grain boundary (GB) or 90° Si GB has been studied by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and refined by atomistic simulations (Stillinger-Weber potential). Samples were made by bonding one (001) Si wafer with one (110) Si wafer and carefully orienting the 2 wafers in order that they have a common [10] direction. In the interfacial direction perpendicular to [10], the [110]I direction of grain I is parallel to the [001]II direction of grain II and, as the ratio of these 2 vectors is , it is impossible to find 2 integers n and m such that n[110]I=m[001]II. The structure is incommensurate in this direction. Z-contrast images obtained in an FEI-Titan microscope equipped with a probe Cs-corrector easily resolve the Si dumb-bells in the two grains and allow us to determine the complex atomic structures of the interface. On the other hand, near on-axis high resolution TEM images obtained in a JEOL 4000EX microscope are very efficient to analyse the long range order of the interface.
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