Trends in Solute Segregation Behavior During Silicon Solidification

ABSTRACTAt the high growth rates accessible during pulsed-laser induced melting and solidification and explosive crystallization, crystal growth kinetics are dominated not by equilibrium thermodynamics, but by the atomistic mechanisms by which crystallization proceeds. These Mechanisms can be probed by testing the predictions of solute trapping models based on various crystal/Melt interface structures against Measurements. We have measured the dependence of solute trapping of several group III, IV, and V elements in silicon on both interface orientation and crystallization speed. The Aperiodic Stepwise Growth Model of Goldman and Aziz accurately fits both the velocity and orientation dependence of the solute trapping observed in these systems. The success of the model implies a ledge structure for the crystal/Melt interface and a step-flow mechanism for crystal growth. In addition, we have observed an empirical inverse correlation between the two free parameters (“diffusive speeds”) in this model and the equilibrium solute partition coefficient of a system. This correlation may be used to estimate values of the diffusive speeds for other systems in which solute trapping has not been or cannot be Measured.