scholarly journals Faceting of Si and Ge crystals grown on deeply patterned Si substrates in the kinetic regime: phase-field modelling and experiments

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Marco Albani ◽  
Roberto Bergamaschini ◽  
Andrea Barzaghi ◽  
Marco Salvalaglio ◽  
Joao Valente ◽  
...  

AbstractThe development of three-dimensional architectures in semiconductor technology is paving the way to new device concepts for various applications, from quantum computing to single photon avalanche detectors. In most cases, such structures are achievable only under far-from-equilibrium growth conditions. Controlling the shape and morphology of the growing structures, to meet the strict requirements for an application, is far more complex than in close-to-equilibrium cases. The development of predictive simulation tools can be essential to guide the experiments. A versatile phase-field model for kinetic crystal growth is presented and applied to the prototypical case of Ge/Si vertical microcrystals grown on deeply patterned Si substrates. These structures, under development for innovative optoelectronic applications, are characterized by a complex three-dimensional set of facets essentially driven by facet competition. First, the parameters describing the kinetics on the surface of Si and Ge are fitted on a small set of experimental results. To this goal, Si vertical microcrystals have been grown, while for Ge the fitting parameters have been obtained from data from the literature. Once calibrated, the predictive capabilities of the model are demonstrated and exploited for investigating new pattern geometries and crystal morphologies, offering a guideline for the design of new 3D heterostructures. The reported methodology is intended to be a general approach for investigating faceted growth under far-from-equilibrium conditions.

Author(s):  
T. Cool ◽  
P. W. Voorhees

The processes leading to the fragmentation of secondary dendrite arms are studied using a three-dimensional Sn dendritic structure that was measured experimentally as an initial condition in a phase-field simulation. The phase-field model replicates the kinetics of the coarsening process seen experimentally. Consistent with the experiment, the simulations of the Sn-rich dendrite show that secondary dendrite arm coalescence is prevalent and that fragmentation is not. The lack of fragmentation is due to the non-axisymmetric morphology and comparatively small spacing of the dendrite arms. A model for the coalescence process is proposed, and, consistent with the model, the radius of the contact region following coalescence increases as t 1/3 . We find that small changes in the width and spacing of the dendrite arms can lead to a very different fragmentation-dominated coarsening process. Thus, the alloy system and growth conditions of the dendrite can have a major impact on the fragmentation process. This article is part of the theme issue ‘From atomistic interfaces to dendritic patterns’.


2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Min Yang ◽  
Lu Wang ◽  
Wentao Yan

AbstractA three-dimensional phase-field model is developed to simulate grain evolutions during powder-bed-fusion (PBF) additive manufacturing, while the physically-informed temperature profile is implemented from a thermal-fluid flow model. The phase-field model incorporates a nucleation model based on classical nucleation theory, as well as the initial grain structures of powder particles and substrate. The grain evolutions during the three-layer three-track PBF process are comprehensively reproduced, including grain nucleation and growth in molten pools, epitaxial growth from powder particles, substrate and previous tracks, grain re-melting and re-growth in overlapping zones, and grain coarsening in heat-affected zones. A validation experiment has been carried out, showing that the simulation results are consistent with the experimental results in the molten pool and grain morphologies. Furthermore, the grain refinement by adding nanoparticles is preliminarily reproduced and compared against the experimental result in literature.


2010 ◽  
Vol 97-101 ◽  
pp. 3769-3772 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chang Sheng Zhu ◽  
Jun Wei Wang

Based on a thin interface limit 3D phase-field model by coupled the anisotropy of interfacial energy and self-designed AADCR to improve on the computational methods for solving phase-field, 3D dendritic growth in pure undercooled melt is implemented successfully. The simulation authentically recreated the 3D dendritic morphological fromation, and receives the dendritic growth rule being consistent with crystallization mechanism. An example indicates that AADCR can decreased 70% computational time compared with not using algorithms for a 3D domain of size 300×300×300 grids, at the same time, the accelerated algorithms’ computed precision is higher and the redundancy is small, therefore, the accelerated method is really an effective method.


2007 ◽  
Vol 558-559 ◽  
pp. 1177-1181 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philippe Schaffnit ◽  
Markus Apel ◽  
Ingo Steinbach

The kinetics and topology of ideal grain growth were simulated using the phase-field model. Large scale phase-field simulations were carried out where ten thousands grains evolved into a few hundreds without allowing coalescence of grains. The implementation was first validated in two-dimensions by checking the conformance with square-root evolution of the average grain size and the von Neumann-Mullins law. Afterwards three-dimensional simulations were performed which also showed fair agreement with the law describing the evolution of the mean grain size against time and with the results of S. Hilgenfeld et al. in 'An Accurate von Neumann's Law for Three-Dimensional Foams', Phys. Rev. Letters, 86(12)/2685, March 2001. Finally the steady state grain size distribution was investigated and compared to the Hillert theory.


2015 ◽  
Vol 12 (11) ◽  
pp. 4289-4296 ◽  
Author(s):  
Li Feng ◽  
Jinfang Jia ◽  
Changsheng Zhu ◽  
Yang Lu ◽  
Rongzhen Xiao ◽  
...  

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