The efficiency of nickel gettering in vacancy- and interstitial-silicon-dominant crystalline nature was studied using wafers cut along the axial direction of a CZ-grown silicon ingot grown with a variable v/G ratio. Six crystalline areas (V-rich, P-band, P-v, P-I, B-band, and l-rich) were present within one wafer. Nickel gettering efficiency was estimated before and after a typical NAND-flash-memory heat-treatment. With as-grown CZ silicon wafers, nickel gettering depends on the crystalline nature, i.e., nickel atoms are mainly gathered at oxygen precipitates in bulk at vacancy-dominant crystalline regions and at the surface of pure silicon in the interstitial-silicon-dominant crystal region (P-I). Rapid thermal annealing of a CZ silicon wafer at 1175 degrees C for 10 s in Ar/NH3 mixture ambient completely erased the dependency of nickel gettering on the crystalline nature and demonstrated an excellent getting ability for nickel contamination via the relaxation gettering of oxygen precipitates. (C)) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.