Supercooling of silicon and germanium after laser melting

Conference · Thu Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1987

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1557/PROC-100-505· OSTI ID:5621322

Stiffler, S R; Thompson, M O; Peercy, P S

Following pulsed laser melting, supercoolings of 505/sup 0/K in Si and 430/sup 0/K in Ge were observed prior to bulk nucleation. These large supercoolings are obtained because of the extremely high thermal quench which follows laser irradiation. Nucleation rates were estimated to be approx.10/sup 29/ events/m/sup 3//s. Assuming that homogeneous nucleation was achieved, surface energies are estimated to be 0.34 J/m/sup 2/ for Si and 0.24 J/m/sup 2/ for Ge. These results are in reasonable agreement with traditional homogeneous nucleation experiments sensitive to rates of only approx.10/sup 10/ events/m/sup 3//s. This laser melting technique is applicable to nucleation studies in a wide variety of materials. 21 refs., 3 figs.

• Research Organization: Sandia National Labs., Albuquerque, NM (USA); Cornell Univ., Ithaca, NY (USA). Dept. of Materials Science
• DOE Contract Number: AC04-76DP00789
• OSTI ID: 5621322
• Report Number(s): SAND-87-1719C; CONF-871124-53; ON: DE88004957
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
360102* -- Metals & Alloys-- Structure & Phase Studies
360104 -- Metals & Alloys-- Physical Properties
ALUMINIUM COMPOUNDS
ALUMINIUM OXIDES
CHALCOGENIDES
COOLING
CORUNDUM
CRYSTAL GROWTH
CRYSTAL STRUCTURE
CRYSTALS
ELEMENTS
ENERGY
FILMS
FREE ENERGY
GERMANIUM
HEATING
HIGH TEMPERATURE
INTERFACES
KINETICS
LASER-RADIATION HEATING
LASERS
MELTING
METALS
MICROSTRUCTURE
MINERALS
MONOCRYSTALS
NUCLEATION
OPTICAL REFLECTION
OXIDE MINERALS
OXIDES
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
PHASE TRANSFORMATIONS
PHYSICAL PROPERTIES
PLASMA HEATING
QUENCHING
REFLECTION
RUBY LASERS
SAPPHIRE
SEMIMETALS
SILICON
SILICON COMPOUNDS
SILICON OXIDES
SOLID STATE LASERS
SOLIDIFICATION
SUBSTRATES
SURFACE ENERGY
SURFACE PROPERTIES
THERMODYNAMIC PROPERTIES
THIN FILMS