Effect of grain size on the melting point of confined thin aluminum films

Journal Article · Tue Oct 28 04:00:00 EDT 2014 · Journal of Applied Physics

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4899240· OSTI ID:22308180

Wejrzanowski, Tomasz; Lewandowska, Malgorzata; Sikorski, Krzysztof; Kurzydlowski, Krzysztof J. ^[1]

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1. Materials Design Division, Faculty of Materials Science and Engineering, Warsaw University of Technology, Woloska 141, 02-507 Warsaw (Poland)

The melting of aluminum thin film was studied by a molecular dynamics (MD) simulation technique. The effect of the grain size and type of confinement was investigated for aluminum film with a constant thickness of 4 nm. The results show that coherent intercrystalline interface suppress the transition of solid aluminum into liquid, while free-surface gives melting point depression. The mechanism of melting of polycrystalline aluminum thin film was investigated. It was found that melting starts at grain boundaries and propagates to grain interiors. The melting point was calculated from the Lindemann index criterion, taking into account only atoms near to grain boundaries. This made it possible to extend melting point calculations to bigger grains, which require a long time (in the MD scale) to be fully molten. The results show that 4 nm thick film of aluminum melts at a temperature lower than the melting point of bulk aluminum (933 K) only when the grain size is reduced to 6 nm.

• OSTI ID: 22308180
• Journal Information: Journal of Applied Physics, Journal Name: Journal of Applied Physics Journal Issue: 16 Vol. 116; ISSN JAPIAU; ISSN 0021-8979
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS
SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY
ALUMINIUM
ATOMS
GRAIN BOUNDARIES
GRAIN SIZE
INTERFACES
LIQUIDS
MELTING
MELTING POINTS
MOLECULAR DYNAMICS METHOD
POLYCRYSTALS
SIMULATION
SOLIDS
SURFACES
THICKNESS
THIN FILMS