Crystallographic Parameters of Special Grain Boundaries in Multicrystalline Silicon

The orientation of grains and the special boundaries formed by them in multicrystalline silicon has been studied by electron backscattered diffraction. It is found that the crystallographic parameters of special boundaries (misorientation angle and rotation axis) obtained using the Tango HKL Channel 5 software module may differ from the results of their direct computation by calculating the rotation matrix in the Spyder integrated development environment, using identical formulas based on Euler angles. In particular, special boundaries n-ary sumation 3, n-ary sumation 9, and n-ary sumation 27a with misorientation angles of 180 degrees, 120 degrees, and 165 degrees, respectively, are found in multicrystalline silicon. These versions of special grain boundaries are theoretically possible for the crystals of cubic system; however, they have not been investigated experimentally in multicrystalline silicon.

Automated summary

The orientation of grains and the special boundaries in multicrystalline silicon were studied, revealing the existence of certain special boundaries in this material, though not yet experimentally investigated.