Carrier mediated reduction of stiffness in nanoindented crystalline Si(100)

TL;DR

This study demonstrates that high carrier concentrations in crystalline silicon reduce its stiffness during nanoindentation, with the effect aligning with electronic elastic strain theory and exceeding previously reported impurity effects.

Contribution

It reveals a carrier-mediated mechanism for stiffness reduction in crystalline silicon, linking electronic effects to mechanical properties at the nanoscale.

Findings

Heavily doped c-Si shows 5-7.5% lower elastic modulus.

The observed reduction matches electronic elastic strain predictions.

The effect surpasses previously reported impurity-induced stiffness decreases.

Abstract

We report the observation of carrier mediated decrease in the stiffness of crystalline (c)-Si(100) under nanoindentation. The apparent elastic modulii of heavily dopes (1E21 cm-3) p- and n-type c-Si are observed to be lower by 5.-7.5 percent that the estimated value for intrinsic (1E14 cm-3) c-Si. The deviation observed with respect to elastic modulus remarkably matches with the estimated value while considering the electronic elastic strain effect on carrier concentration as an influence of negative pressure coefficient of band gap for Si. The value is predominantly higher than the reported value of a decrease of 1-3 percent in stiffness as an effect of impurity in c-Si.