We combine electron spin resonance measurements with vacuum ultraviolet, ultraviolet, and corona bias charge injection schemes to examine the properties and charge trapping roles of three E′ variants in conventionally processed thermally grown thin film SiO2 on Si.

The nature of dislocations which have been activated during plastic deformation of MoSi2 at 1400°C in compression have been identified using transmission electron microscopy. Particular attention has been paid to the possible dissociation of dislocations, and it has been confirmed that dislocations with Burgers vectors lying parallel to <111> are dissociated. The dissociation is represented by:

1/2<111> → 1/4<111> + SISF + 1/4<111>,

where SISF stands for superlattice intrinsic stacking fault. The SISF energy has been estimated from the separation of the partial dislocations to be ≈ 255 mJ.m−2. A simple explanation to account for the occurrence of dissociation for particular dislocations is presented.

An experimental technique has been developed to study the electrical properties of semiconductor grain boundaries (GBs) by a focused laser beam. The laser beam is trained on a GB while the photoconductivity of the sample is measured. Both the steady-state and transient signals are recorded as functions of temperature. From these data, we obtain well-defined GB parameters, including the barrier height, interface charge density, trap energy and thermal capture cross-section. This technique allows us to examine localized regions of individual GBs in a semiconductor with multiple grains.