Dendritic Growth in Si_1−xGe_x Melts

Abstract

We investigated the types of dendrites grown in Si1−xGex (0 x 1-xGex alloys. Si1−xGex (0 x 1−xGex alloys are promising for use as epitaxial substrates for electronic devices owing to the fact that their band gap and lattice constant can be tuned by selecting the proper composition, and also for thermoelectric applications at elevated temperatures. On the other hand, regarding the fundamentals of solidification, some phenomena during the solidification process have not been clarified completely. Dendrite growth is a well-known phenomenon, which appears during the solidification processes of various materials. However, the details of dendrite growth in Si1−xGex (0 x 1−xGex (0 x 1−xGex (0 x < 1) melts. It was also found that faceted dendrites can be grown in directional solidification before instability of the crystal/melt interface occurs, when a growing crystal contains parallel twin boundaries.

Keywords

• dendritic growth
• crystal/melt interface
• semiconductor