The properties of Shockley partials in crystalline cubic silicon carbide (3C-SiC): Core width and Peierls stress

The core width and Peierls stress for Shockley partials in 3C-SiC have been investigated using the improved P-N theory, in which the discrete effect and the contribution from strain energy ignored by classical P-N theory have been taken into account. After considering the discrete effect, the core width becomes wider and Peierls stress becomes lower. The Shockley partials in 3C-SiC are very narrow, the core widths xi are narrower than 0.6b (b is the Burgers vector). After considering the contribution from strain energy, the Peierls stress is further decreased. The result given by improved P-N theory is one order of magnitude smaller than that given by classical P-N theory. For Shockley partials in 3C-SiC, the calculated Peierls stress is about 5-12 GPa, agrees well with the numerical result 7.5 GPa. The improved P-N theory can be used to estimate the core width and Peierls stress for dislocations in semiconductors quantitatively. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.