Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-7cvxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T10:38:22.784Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

An in situ electrical measurement technique via a conducting diamond tip for nanoindentation in silicon

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 March 2011

S. Ruffell ,
J.E. Bradby ,
J.S. Williams  and
O.L. Warren
S. Ruffell*
Affiliation:
Department of Electronic Materials Engineering, Research School of Physical Sciences and Engineering, Australian National University, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory 0200, Australia
J.E. Bradby
Affiliation:
Department of Electronic Materials Engineering, Research School of Physical Sciences and Engineering, Australian National University, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory 0200, Australia
J.S. Williams
Affiliation:
Department of Electronic Materials Engineering, Research School of Physical Sciences and Engineering, Australian National University, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory 0200, Australia
O.L. Warren
Affiliation:
Hysitron Inc., Minneapolis, Minnesota 55344
*
a) Address all correspondence to this author. e-mail: simon.ruffell@anu.edu.au
Get access

Abstract

An in situ electrical measurement technique for the investigation of nanoindentation using a Hysitron Triboindenter is described, together with details of experiments to address some technical issues associated with the technique. Pressure-induced phase transformations in silicon during indentation are of particular interest but are not fully understood. The current in situ electrical characterization method makes use of differences in electrical properties of the phase-transformed silicon to better understand the sequence of transformations that occur during loading and unloading. Here, electric current is measured through the sample/indenter tip during indentation, with a fixed or variable voltage applied to the sample. This method allows both current monitoring during indentation and the extraction of current-voltage (I-V) characteristics at various stages of loading. The work presented here focuses on experimental issues that must be understood for a full interpretation of results from nanoindentation experiments in silicon. The tip/sample contact and subsurface electrical resistivity changes dominate the resultant current measurement. Extracting the component of contact resistance provides an extremely sensitive method for measuring the electrical properties of the material immediately below the indenter tip, with initial results from indentation in silicon showing that this is a very sensitive probe of subsurface structural and electrical changes.

Keywords

Electrical propertiesPhase transformationSi
Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Materials Research , Volume 22 , Issue 3 , March 2007 , pp. 578 - 586
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2007

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

1Hu, J.Z., Merkle, L.D., Menoni, C.S., and Spain, I.L.: Crystal data for high-pressure phases of silicon. Phys. Rev. B 34, 4679 (1986).CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
2Piltz, R.O., Maclean, J.R., Clark, S.J., Auckland, G.J., Hatton, P.D., and Crain, J.: Structure and properties of silicon XII: A complex tetrahedrally bonded phase. Phys. Rev. B 52, 4072 (1995).CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
3Crain, J., Ackland, G.J., Maclean, J.R., Piltz, R.O., Hatton, P.D., and Pawley, G.S.: Reversible pressure-induced structural transitions between metastable phases of silicon. Phys. Rev. B 50, 13043 (1994).CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
4Domnich, V., Gogotsi, Y., and Dub, S.: Effect of phase transformations on the shape of the unloading curve in the nanoindentation of silicon. Appl. Phys. Lett. 76, 2214 (2000).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
5Bradby, J.E., Williams, J.S., Wong-Leung, J., Swain, M.V., and Munroe, P.: Mechanical deformation in silicon by micro-indentation. J. Mater. Res. 16, 1500 (2001).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
6Bradby, J.E., Williams, J.S., Wong-Leung, J., Swain, M.V., and Munroe, P.: Transmission electron microscopy observation of deformation microstructure under spherical indentation in silicon. Appl. Phys. Lett. 77, 3749 (2000).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
7Clarke, D.R., Kroll, M.C., Kirchner, P.D., Cook, R.F., and Hockey, B.J.: Amorphization and conductivity of silicon and germanium induced by indentation. Phys. Rev. Lett. 60, 2156 (1988).CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
8Kailer, A., Gogotsi, Y.G., and Nickel, K.G.: Phase transformations of silicon caused by contact loading. J. Appl. Phys. 81, 3057 (1997).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
9Bradby, J.E., Williams, J.S., and Swain, M.V.: In situ electrical characterization of phase transformations in Si during indentation. Phys. Rev. B67, 085205 (2003).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
10Pharr, G.M., Oliver, W.C., and Harding, D.S.: New evidence for a pressure-induced phase transformation during the indentation of silicon. J. Mater. Res. 6, 1129 (1991).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
11Pharr, G.M., Oliver, W.C., Cook, R.F., Kirchner, P.D., Kroll, M.C., Dinger, T.R., and Clarke, D.R.: Electrical resistance of metallic contacts on silicon and germanium during indentation. J. Mater. Res. 7, 961 (1992).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
12Weppelmann, E.R., Field, J.S., and Swain, M.V.: Observation, analysis, and simulation of the hysteresis of silicon using ultra-micro-indentation with spherical indenters. J. Mater. Res. 8, 830 (1993).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
13Williams, J.S., Chen, Y., Wong-Leung, J., Kerr, A., and Swain, M.V.: Ultra-micro-indentation of silicon and compound semiconductors with spherical indenters. J. Mater. Res. 14, 2338 (1999).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
14Gogotsi, Y.G., Domnich, V., Dub, S.N., Kailer, A., and Nickel, K.G.: Cyclic nanoindentation and Raman microspectroscopy study of phase transformations in semiconductors. J. Appl. Phys. 15, 871 (2000).Google Scholar
15Mann, A.B., van Heerden, D., Pethica, J.B., Bowes, P., and Weihs, T.P.: Contact resistance and phase transformations during nanoindentation of silicon. Philos. Mag. A. 82, 1921 (2002).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
16Mann, A.B., van Heerden, D., Pethica, J.B., and Weihs, T.P.: Size dependent phase transformation during point loading of silicon. J. Mater. Res. 15, 1754 (2000).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
17Hysitron Incorporated: Quoted Tip Resistivity (Hysitron, Inc., Minneapolis, MN, 2005).Google Scholar
18Rhoderick, E.H. and Williams, R.H.: Metal-Semiconductor Contacts (Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK, 1988).Google Scholar
19Fischer-Cripps, A.C.: Nanoindentation Mechanical Engineering Series (Springer-Verlag: New York, 2004).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
20Pearson, G.L.: Pressure dependence of the resistivity of silicon. Phys. Rev. 98, 1755 (1955).Google Scholar
21Zhang, T-Y. and Xu, W-H.: Surface effects on nanoindentation. J. Mater. Res. 17, 1715 (2002).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
22Bhushan, B. and Li, X.: Micromechanical and tribological characterization of doped single-crystal silicon and polysilicon films for microelectromechanical systems devices. J. Mater. Res. 12, 59 (1997).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
23 Private communication, Hysitron Incorporated.Google Scholar
24Jang, J-i., Lance, M.J., Wen, S., Tsui, T.Y., and Pharr, G.M.: Indentation-induced phase transformations in silicon: Influences of load, rate and indenter angle on the transformation behavior. Acta Mater. 53, 1759 (2005).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
25Gogotsi, Y., Miletich, T., Gardner, M., and Rosenberg, M.: Microindentation device for in situ study of pressure-induced phase transformations. Rev. Sci. Instrum. 70, 4612 (1999).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
26Werner, M., Job, R., Denisenko, A., Zaitsev, A., Fahrner, W.R., Johnston, C., Chalker, P.R., and Buckley-Golder, I.M.: How to fabricate low-resistance metal-diamond contacts. Diamond Relat. Mater. 5, 723 (1996).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
27Chen, Y., Ogura, M., Yamasaki, S., and Okushi, H.: Ohmic contacts on p-type homoepitaxial diamond and their thermal stability. Semicond. Sci. Technol. 20, 860 (2005).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
28Uzan-Saguy, C., Kalish, R., Walker, R., Jamieson, D.N., and Prawer, S.: Formation of delta-doped, buried conducting layers in diamond, by high-energy, B-ion implantation. Diamond Relat. Mater. 7, 1429 (1998).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
29Collins, A.T.: Properties and Growth of Diamond edited by Davies, G. (Inspec: London, 1994), p. 273.Google Scholar
30Jeffery, S., Sofield, C.J., and Pethica, J.B.: The influence of mechanical stress on the dielectric breakdown field strength of thin SiO2 films. Appl. Phys. Lett. 73, 172 (1998).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
31Asif, S.A. Syed, Wahl, K.J., and Colton, R.J.: The influence of oxide and adsorbates on the nanomechanical response of silicon surfaces. J. Mater. Res. 15, 546 (2000).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
32Hsiao, R. and Bogy, D.: Nanoindentation Characteristics of Silicon: Application Notes (Hysitron Incorporated, Minneapolis, MN, 2003).Google Scholar
33Juliano, T., Domnich, V., and Gogotsi, Y.: Examining pressure-induced phase transformations in silicon by spherical indentation and Raman spectroscopy: A statistical study. J. Mater. Res. 19, 3099 (2004).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
34Juliano, T., Gogotsi, Y., and Domnich, V.: Effect of indentation unloading conditions on phase transformation induced events in silicon. J. Mater. Res. 18, 1192 (2003).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
35Ruffell, S., Bradby, J.E., and Williams, J.S.: Identification of nanoindentation-induced phase changes in silicon by in-situ electrical characterization. J. Appl. Phys. (2007, submitted).CrossRefGoogle Scholar