Mechanism of the effect of electron beam melting on the distribution of oxygen, nitrogen and carbon in silicon

Abstract

AbstractElectron beam melting was utilized to investigate the behavior of carbon flow by melting 100 g of multi-crystalline silicon in an electron beam furnace for five minutes. Carbon and nitrogen are the constituent impurities in contaminated Si samples with an average weight of 13 % and 9, respectively. The electron beam melting experiment caused redistribution of the impurities along the periphery and bottom of the Si sample with a pie-shaped structure. Investigations through scanning electron microscopy and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy confirmed that the impurities were silicon nitride and silicon carbide. It was determined that Si3N4 has a rod-shaped microstructure, whereas SiC has a granular morphology. By segregating the impurities redistributed through this technique, pure Si was obtained in the remaining sample.