Stacking Fault Energies of Tetrahedrally Coordinated Crystals

The energies of the intrinsic stacking fault in 20 tetrahedrally coordinated crystals, determined by electron microscopy from the widths of extended dislocations, range from a few mJ/m to 300 mJ/m. The reduced stacking fault energy (RSFE: stacking fault energy per bond perpendicular to the fault plane) has been found to have correlations with the effective charge, the charge redistribution index of the crystals and with the c/a ratio of the wurtzite structure (for many of the diamond and zincblende crystals, the wurtzite structure has also been reported to exist as a metastable phase). The implication of the correlations has been discussed from the point of the relative stability of the crystals between the cubic structure and the hexagonal structure.