ABSTRACTPulsed laser irradiation is used to induce epitaxial explosive crystallization of amorphous silicon layers buried in a (100) oriented crystalline matrix. This process is mediated by a self-propagating liquid layer. Time-resolved determination of the crystallization speed combined with numerical calculation of the interface temperature shows that freezing in silicon saturates at 16 m/s for large undercooling (> 130 K). A comparison between data and different models for melting and freezing indicates that the crystallization behavior at large undercooling can be described correctly if the rate-limiting factor is assumed to be diffusion in liquid Si at the solid/liquid interface.
Explosive crystallization in thin amorphous layers on heat conducting substrates
