Doping effects on the stability of stacking faults in silicon crystals

In silicon crystals annealed at 1173 K, n-type dopant atoms segregate nearby a stacking fault ribbon bound by a pair of partial dislocations and the width of the ribbon is increased. The origin of the width increase is the reduction of the stacking fault energy due to an electronic interaction between the ribbon and the dopant atoms segregating at the ribbon, rather than the reduction of the strain energy around the partial dislocations due to the dopant atoms segregating at the partials.