The impact of oxygen precipitation on dislocation generation at small angle grain boundaries during seed-assisted directional solidification of silicon

We have investigated the source of dislocations generated during growth and subsequent cooling of quasi‐monocrystalline silicon. Bi‐crystals of silicon separated by ∼5.2° tilt small angle grain boundary have been directionally solidified at two different pulling rates, i.e., 3 and 13 μm s−1. We observe higher density of grain boundary‐associated dislocations at the ingot pulled at a lower rate. This observation is explained by the impact of oxygen precipitation behavior at the grain boundary.