Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 February 2011
Real-time techniques were used to study rapid melt and solidification dynamics in silicon. In crystalline Si, the interface response function was characterized and found to be asymmetric for large deviations from the melting temperature, which will require reevaluation of conventional transition state treatments of melt and solidification. In amorphous Si, the mechanism of explosive crystallization was studied. The explosive transformation is mediated by a buried liquid layer, and detailed measurements have led to the suggestion that polycrystalline Si nucleates at the moving liquid-amorphous interface. For certain conditions, this process could yield fine-grained polycrystalline Si; for other conditions it permits epitaxial regrowth from the underlying crystalline Si for maximum melt thickness much less than the original amorphous layer thickness.