Time-Resolved Temperature Measurements during Rapid Solidification of Si-As Alloys Induced by Pulsed-Laser Melting.

Abstract

The solidification of Si-As alloys induced by pulsed-laser melting was studied at regrowth velocities where the partition coefficient is close to unity. The congruent melting temperatures T₀ of Si-As alloys were determined using a temperature measurement technique developed for this work, and was confirmed with T₀ measurements using three other methods. The time-resolved temperature measurement uses a thin-film platinum thermistor, below and electrically isolated from the Si-As alloy layer, to directly measure the temperature during solidification. The other techniques compared the results of heat flow simulations with the fluence dependence of the peak melt depth obtained by transient conductance, the fluence dependence of the melt duration determined from time-resolved reflectivity and transient conductance, and the fluence threshold for the initiation of melting. This combination of measurements in conjunction with Rutherford backscattering spectrometry permitted the determination of the solid-liquid interface temperature, velocity and partition coefficient, the latent heat of fusion and T0 for Si-4.5 at. % As and Si-9 at. % As alloys. The values of T₀ determined by all four independent methods were consistent, indicating overall agreement between the direct experimental measurements and the analyses based on heat flow simulations. T0 was determined to be 1565±25 K for 4.5 at. % As and 1425±25 K for 9 at. % As. In addition, the enthalpy of fusion was determined to be independent of composition for the range studied. The values obtained in this work are compared with previous measurements.