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Preface
Silicon, as a single-crystal semiconductor, has brought about a great revolution in the eld
of electronics and has touched almost all elds of science and technology. Though avail-
able abundantly in the form of silica and various other forms, in nature, it is a tough and
challenging job to separate it from its chemical compounds because of its reactivity. As a
solid, it is chemically inert and stable, but growing it as a single crystal poses many techno-
logical issues and one has to cross many hurdles. This book aims in the direction of getting
a good-quality single-crystal silicon wafer suitable for very large scale integration ...