Directed movement of Au-Si droplets towards buried dislocation networks on silicon bicrystals

Directed movement of Au-Si alloy droplets towards buried dislocation grids on a Si bicrystal has been observed by in situ ultrahigh vacuum transmission electron microscopy. It was found that once the underlying dislocation structure was dissolved, the movement of Au-Si droplets was directed to the region with remaining dislocation network. The migration of Au-Si droplets is driven by the energy difference between the strained bicrystal and nonstrained single-crystal silicon. The directed movement by the buried dislocation network is potentially significant in a wide range of technologies.