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Supercooling of Silicon and Germanium after Laser Melting

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 February 2011

S. R. Stiffler ,
Michael O. Thompson  and
P. S. Peercy
S. R. Stiffler
Affiliation:
Materials Science Dept., Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853
Michael O. Thompson
Affiliation:
Materials Science Dept., Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853
P. S. Peercy
Affiliation:
Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, NM 87185
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Abstract

Following pulsed laser melting, supercoolings of 505 K in Si and 430 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 ∼1029 events/m3/s. Assuming that homogeneous nucleation was achieved, surface energies are estimated to be 0.34 J/m2 for Si and 0.24 J/m2 for Ge. These results are in reasonable agreement with traditional homogeneous nucleation experiments sensitive to rates of only ∼1010 events/m3/s. This laser melting technique is applicable to nucleation studies in a wide variety of materials.

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