Phase relation between supercooled liquid and amorphous silicon

The phase relation between supercooled liquid silicon (l-Si) and amorphous silicon (a-Si) is discussed based on experimental results. Electrostatically levitated l-Si samples were supercooled down to low temperatures, 300 K below the melting temperature (Tcl: 1683 K), and solidified accompanied by t...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Applied physics letters 2020-03, Vol.116 (9)
Main Authors: Okada, Junpei T., Sit, Patrick H.-L., Ishikawa, Ryo, Ishikawa, Takehiko, Chen, Jinfan, Nakayama, Koji S., Maeda, Kensaku, Yokoyama, Yoshihiko, Watanabe, Yuki, Paradis, Paul-François, Watanabe, Yasuhiro, Nanao, Susumu, Ikuhara, Yuichi, Kimura, Kaoru, Uda, Satoshi
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Amorphous silicon
Applied physics
Latent heat
Low temperature
Melt temperature
Metastable phases
Phase transitions
Photovoltaic cells
Rapid quenching (metallurgy)
Solidification
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Summary:The phase relation between supercooled liquid silicon (l-Si) and amorphous silicon (a-Si) is discussed based on experimental results. Electrostatically levitated l-Si samples were supercooled down to low temperatures, 300 K below the melting temperature (Tcl: 1683 K), and solidified accompanied by the release of latent heat. It was found that solidified Si samples melted again at 1480 K caused by the latent heat. Also, it was found that the Si samples that rapidly quenched near the solidification temperature contained a large amount of a-Si with tetrahedral coordination. These two findings show that the supercooled l-Si samples solidified into a-Si and a-Si melted, confirming the idea of a first-order phase transition between two metastable phases proposed by Turnbull et al. [Metall. Mater. Trans. A 29, 1825 (1998)].
ISSN:0003-6951
1077-3118
DOI:10.1063/1.5129059