Transition from a punched-out dislocation to a slip dislocation revealed by electron tomography

Punched-out dislocations emitted from an octahedral oxide precipitate in single-crystal silicon were investigated using high-voltage electron microscopy and tomography (HVEM-tomography) to understand the mechanism of softening caused by the oxide precipitates. In the present paper, direct evidence of the transition of a punched-out prismatic dislocation loop to a slip dislocation is presented. The punched-out dislocation grows into a large matrix dislocation loop by absorption of interstitial atoms, which were produced during oxide precipitation.