Solid-Liquid Interface Energy between Silicon Crystal and Silicon-Aluminum Melt

Abstract

By examining the surface morphologies of undercooled Si-20 at. pct Al alloy during and after the solidification process, it is determined that the critical undercooling for silicon to grow from lateral mode to intermediary mode ΔT* and that from intermediary mode to continuous mode ΔT** are 131 and 239 K, respectively. A method that predicts the solid-liquid interface energy of binary lateral growth materials on the basis of ΔT* and ΔT** has been developed. Formulas between the physical parameters and the solid-liquid interface energy have been obtained. The interface energy between silicon crystal and Si-Al melt predicted from ΔT* is almost equal to that from ΔT**. The present results of the solid-liquid interface energy predicted according to ΔT* and ΔT** obtained in Si-20 at. pct Al alloy are in very good agreement with the reported results of the grain-boundary method and the critical undercooling method from ΔT* and ΔT** obtained in pure silicon.