Quick search Find article
Quick search
Find article

Experimental and molecular dynamics study on crystallization of amorphous silicon under external fields

S H Park1,6, H J Kim2, K H Kang2, J S Lee3, Y K Choi4 and O M Kwon5

Show affiliations


Solid-phase crystallization (SPC) of amorphous silicon (a-Si) under an external force field is investigated experimentally and numerically. Experimental results show that the kinetics of crystallization can be greatly enhanced by applying induction fields without the heating problems of a-Si film and its substrate, since temperature rises during the crystallization process are negligibly small. To explore the underlying acceleration mechanisms for the SPC process under the external fields, molecular dynamics simulations are carried out using the Tersoff potential. The numerical amorphous structure is obtained by the liquid quenching method and is utilized to simulate the crystallization processes at various process temperatures with and without external force fields. While homogeneous crystallization of a-Si could not be achieved readily, it is shown that the heterogeneous crystallization can be significantly accelerated by external force fields. This enhancement is due to increased molecular jumping frequencies associated with the molecular potential energies being increased by external excitations, rather than due to thermal mechanisms dominant in conventional SPC processes.


PACS

61.43.Bn Structural modeling: serial-addition models, computer simulation

64.70.D- Solid–liquid transitions

81.40.Gh Other heat and thermomechanical treatments

68.55.-a Thin film structure and morphology

Subjects

Surfaces, interfaces and thin films

Condensed matter: structural, mechanical & thermal

Dates

Issue 10 (21 May 2005)

Received 1 October 2004, in final form 4 January 2005

Published 6 May 2005



Users also read

What's this?
This innovative new feature generates a list of articles 'also read' by other users based on them reading the original article. Article abstracts citations and references are all considered and weighted accordingly. We hope that this will help you find relevant papers for your research.

  1. The potential for two-dimensional crystallography of membrane proteins at future x-ray free-electron laser sources

View by subject




Export








Please login to access our web services, or create an account if you don't yet have one.

You must have cookies enabled in your web browser to be able to login.

Username
Password

Forgotten your password? Get a new one here.